Thousand of people began streaming into Grahamstown on Thursday for what the pundits say will be a bumper national arts festival.
Funding for the festival poured in this year from major sponsors, including provincial government which provided R3,5-million, Standard Bank (R3,5-million), National Arts Council (R1-million), ”media partner” SABC (R3,5-million), and R10-million over three years from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund.
Pundits say the full coffers appear to have fuelled confidence among performers and audiences. There will be 270 productions, over 1 600 performances, about 30
art exhibitions, 40 films and winter school and WordFest programmes featuring powerful speakers and writers.
Tens of thousands of tickets have already been sold and thousands of hospitality beds have been booked for the full nine days. Makana Tourism spokesperson Willem Makkink said that over 80% of the town’s ”formal sector” accommodation, including hotels, guest houses and registered bed and breakfasts had already been booked. The figures for the informal sector would be similar.
He said indications were that bed occupancy rates would be at least 10-15% up on last year. Rhodes University conference director Ms Caroline Stevenson-Mullins said that over 3 000 people had already booked 13 551 bed nights with the university. This early figure is already well up on last year, when a total of 9 632 bed nights were booked for the entire festival.
National Arts Festival spokesperson Gilly Hemphill said tickets were selling like hot cakes. They had sold over 39 000 tickets on the first day of sales and hadn’t looked back.
Top sellers on the Main programme so far included Swan Lake, In Spirit, Molora, Happy Natives, Auditioning Angels, and the controversial Thuthula.
She said interest in the street theatre on offer had also been ”huge”.
There is always great interest in the annual jazz offerings and, with the Darius Brubeck Quintet, Barney Rachabane Quintet, Gloria Bosman and other well known artists on offer, it is bound to be a sellout again this festival.
Winter School offerings were also popular and David Kramer’s lectures were already sold out, she said. Some of the fringe top sellers included Amanda Strydom’s cabaret, Green Mamba, and It’s just not cricket.
”There are many, many more that are doing extremely well,” she said.
Makana Municipality spokesperson Steven Cridland said they were geared up for the huge demand on local infrastructure. Extra clean-up gangs would keep the streets clean while the traffic division would monitor traffic flow.
”The emergency services are also ready for anything that comes their way,” he said.
SA Police Services operation commander for the festival, Senior Superintendent Morgan Govender said local police would be supported with an injection of a further 250 police personnel from around the province who would provide a 24 hour presence at the festival. They included members from organised crime, detective branch, dog units, and mounted units. There would also be air support.
”We are hoping for a safe and peaceful festival,” he said.
Meanwhile, venues and tents were up and ready and hundreds of traders were setting up their stalls and wares at the Village Green and on Clover Square.
”This is going to be a great festival,” predicted Hemphill. – Sapa