Wilhelm Disbergen
That the Klein Karoo Nasional e Kunstefees (KKNK) resulted from a disgruntled Oudts- hoorn millionaire, Nic Barrow, unable to find a table at a restaurant during a Grahamstown festival a couple of years back, has been the subject of much local speculation. But speculation aside, few can refute the fact that the 8th annual KKNK has been a tremendous success, injecting millions of rands into the Western Cape region.
With maximum temperatures reaching a scorching 38 degrees this week, artistic temperaments were all the rage at this year’s festival most notably that of Steve Hofmeyr. He was seen harassing the editor of the local festival rag after a review of his show in the paper alluded to the fact that the children participating in his show were most probably all his. Antionette Kellerman, dubbed the “Boerebitch” by Die Burger newspaper, was quoted as saying that the main programme had forsaken serious art, instead being turned into a music festival.
But Kellerman is voicing what many have expressed as the zeitgeist of this year’s KKNK the common and commercial. Drama, it seems, does not bring in or cater to the same amount of people as music, and although the marketing department would like to have us believe that there is an equal representation of the arts at this festival, posters and programme listings offer quantifiable proof that this festival is severely lopsided.
Is it therefore any surprise that artists are using the festivals as pit-stops to financial riches, forsaking the innovative and artistic for the commercial and mundane? With low-brow the status quo and acts such as Dowwe Dolla, Patricia Lewis and Steve Hofmeyr catering for the common denominator, the path of least resistance seems paved with gold.
With serious art, theatre and music no longer functioning as a dictate to social value or aesthetics, but instead being replaced by advertising and marketing strategies that espouse brand recognition and loyalty, pop rules and art sucks.
The commercial approach in terms of revenue seems to have worked, drastically increasing the feet count at the festival. Jenny Fourie, financial manager for the KKNK, said that in the first three days of the festival, ticket sales had already exceeded the total sales at last year’s festival. With ticket prices ranging from R20 to R65, gross ticket sales have already approached the R6-million mark.
With more than 160000 people having visited the festival this year, the burden on this little town has been enormous, with traffic jams and parking problems inevitable. Disregarding the private accommodation booked in the more than 140 bed and breakfast establishments in Oudtshoorn, the festival’s accommodation office has had an estimated R3,5-million turnover.
With a white Afrikaans and predominantly 30- to 50-year-old patron demographic at the festival, racial incidents did not come unexpected. Two incidents featured strongly. Firstly that of a coloured man from NB-Publishers prohibited from occupying his accommodation in a white house and secondly that of a local San woman, reveling heartily at the RSG music stage, being cajoled by irritated punters and ending in tears in Annelie van Rooyen’s arms backstage.
Franklin Sonn, patron of the KKNK, said that this imbalance is an unfortunate reflection but that initiatives have been put in place to make the festival more inclusive with each successive year.
Beer tents and braais featured prominently at this year’s festivities corresponding unsurprisingly with the increase in drunken and slovenly behaviour reported to the police. Marketing manager Rhode Snyman says that although temporary liquor licences will be issued with greater restraint next year, the “spirited” festivities attract people who would previously have stayed away, affording the opportunity of inculcating a new audience for the festival. If art does not lure them, why not “dop”?
If this was not enough, Big Brother’s Ferdinand was flavour of the week and Kurt Darren’s song Meisie Meisie a firm favourite on car stereos.
A huge spin-off of this festival is a youth festival initiative that will kick off next year, drawing school and university youths in an effort to address the development of skills in areas of arts, sport, entrepreneurship, education and personal conduct. Using the infrastructure of Oudtshoorn and the KKNK, this first for South Africa will offer practical career guidance by professionals in the designated fields.
If the festival’s aim is promoting popular culture, then it has surely succeeded. Greater attendance means greater sponsorship exposure and the continuation of the festival in successive years. But this approach could very well lead to the festival’s descent into banality. In the resulting decline the national audience may be unwilling to travel from Cape Town or Johannesburg to Oudtshoorn, to dabble in the kind of culture they can catch on television.
The details
Catch Not my Dog at 11.45pm on April 5 at the Tassenberg Stalteater, Oudtshoorn. The KKNK runs until April 6. Call (044) 272 7771 or Computicket on 083 915 8000