Festivals have been described as the lifeblood of the arts in this country. They generally have budgets to commission new work. They attract greater audiences to performances and exhibitions in a few days than what a theatre or gallery would achieve for a full run. They offer artists real opportunities to generate income. Festivals also provide a barometer of where our artists are at, creatively and thematically. Except for the Mother City of all festivals, which provides more of a barometer of where artists are not.
Artists were certainly not at the recent launch of the Cape Town Festival. But then they weren’t invited. Except as the obligatory entertainment for the business suits, political Madiba-shirts and arts manager YDE-chic assembled to woo support.
The launch event at the Cape Town International Convention Centre was like the poor cousin of the Brett Kebble Awards function. Private sector-style aspirations, but with its tacky public-sector petticoat showing. Yet it was still the most expensive launch of the five festivals, set sail on the mantra that you need to spend money to make money.
Given its recent history though, why any company would want to be associated with the festival is anyone’s guess. Having started off on crutches five years ago with a budget of a few hundred thousand and less than five months to get organised, the festival has suffered long-term injuries in the political football game played by changing city administrations, and it still limps noticeably when it manages to get out of its wheelchair. Relatively small amounts of funding are still confirmed and made available mere months before the start of the festival, rendering it an organiser’s nightmare.
Little wonder that in the five years of its existence, the festival has gobbled up four managers with the same relish as the launch guests gobbled their faux Nando’s chicken main course. The number of individuals who have collected their Cape Town Festival manager’s T-shirt is proportionally second in turnover to the number of rugby players who pass through a Springbok shirt in a year.
There have been numerous event highlights of festivals past and hardworking, often voluntary or poorly paid event managers and artists have gone beyond the call of duty in trying to build a festival worthy of Cape Town’s international “creative city” designation. But the lack of continuity, the logistical frustrations imposed by short time frameworks and low budgets, and the political hoops that have to be jumped through have combined to alienate artists, cultural institutions, managers, international partners and sponsors.
Perhaps in its fifth year, the festival has reached its turning point with the province joining the city as the main sponsors. Ebrahim Rasool, provincial minister for finance and economic development and African National Congress leader in the Western Cape, spoke very eloquently at the launch about how important culture is to the ANC and about how hard they fought for this portfolio when negotiating Cabinet posts with the New National Party in their coalition government.
In my book, Rasool is a good-guy politician. However, it was difficult to reconcile his statement with the subsequent appointment of Patrick McKenzie as the provincial minister responsible for arts and culture, not only because he had shortly before defected from the NNP, but also when he spoke it was difficult to differentiate between him and the stand-up comic who was the MC on the night.
Rasool has seen the Learning Cape Festival, which falls under his department, grow enormously in just two years. He is aware of the potential benefits of the film industry, hence his department’s support for the Cape-based film studio. Whoever comes to power in the province after April 14, one hopes they will appoint someone of substance to the arts and culture portfolio, which, rather than being a soft option or a demotion, has huge potential for raising the image of the province, for attracting investment and raising the quality of the lives of ordinary people.
The festival needs to become attractive to sponsors. Whether it will do this by creating the largest koeksister in the world, as announced at the launch, remains to be seen. At least though, if they cannot pay the artists, they can let them eat koeksister.