MORE than 54 000 tickets have been sold on the main=20 programme of the Grahamstown Arts Festival. The most popular=20 shows, predictably, are Faustus in Africa, The Island and My=20 Plunge to Fame. Ticket sales for the Fringe are up from last year=20 with more than 15 shows sold out, including last year’s hugely=20 popular one-man play, Get Hard. Cabaret has proved popular,=20 with Not the Midnight Mass and Pay the Piper fully booked. On=20 Sunday, the fourth day of the festival, more than 50 000 people=20 went through the gates of the Village Green, the festival’s food=20 and craft market. This is up 17 000 from last year’s 33 000.=20 MOST visitors to Grahamstown at festival time come to get some=20 culture, but this year many are making sure they get spiritual=20 guidance too. This can be seen by the tremendous popularity of=20 films and lectures on Buddhism. A series of lectures at the 1820=20 Settlers’ Monument on The Tibetan Book of the Dead, a=20 Buddhist text on what happens to you after death, drew the largest=20 * umber of participants of any lectures, filling the hall. Two films,=20 The Living Buddha, on the reincarnation of a lama, and The=20 Book of the Dead, also filled houses.=20 This support by festivalgoers did not stop Rob Nairn, who gave=20 the lectures and introduced the films, from pointing out that the=20 festival could be a barrier to spiritual growth. “We are always=20 trying to escape from experiencing our minds. That’s why this=20 festival is so popular — it provides us with constant distraction.” THE Bokke’s World Cup victory had people, around South=20 Africa, on the streets last month. But, in Grahamstown, it’s not=20 the Springbok memorabilia stall which is attracting festinos. Nor=20 is it only the box office which is pulling the crowds. It’s the=20 street kids who’ve added something besides Shosholoza to their=20 repetoire: the hakka. Groups of kids staging their performances at the PX Village are=20 probably the most successful and popular buskers at the Festival. =20 They collect their pennies to loud clapping, cheering and shouts=20 of “excellent” — which are missing from many of the official=20
Phonectically precise, with expressions and body language that=20 scream Jonah Lomu, these kids have got it down pat. It just goes=20 to show who won the World Cup, in the townships.=20 THE buzz of the National Arts Festival has proved to be a bit=20 much for some. A schizophrenic, who broke out of a local mental=20 hospital to attend the festival, apparently asked to be taken back=20 after he became tired of it all. Sources at the hospital said the man=20 — who was not believed to be dangerous — broke a window and=20 escaped. However, at the end of the day, he presented himself to=20 the local police station saying he was “tired” and wanted to be=20 taken back to the hospital. The patient apparently spent the day=20 wandering around the stalls which have filled the centre of town=20 and the Village Green. Grahamstown has been turned into an outdoor food fair. At every=20 corner and in every alley, there are a range of victuals to tempt the=20 buds. Peddlers with tanks of hot chocolate strapped to their backs=20 ply the streets, and snug flower shops have been transformed into=20 tea and coffee havens. Residents have temporarily put their lives on hold to feed the=20 thousands who have descended upon the town. There are a range=20 of foods on offer, every from poitjiekos to Turkish shwarmas. The=20 only food that appears to be missing is umqushu (samp), the=20 Xhosa staple. Reports by Mail & Guardian staffers and Ecna