The nation was in raptures after the successful opening of the Soccer World Cup. Sport is not alone in riding high on this optimism. The annual National Arts Festival (NAF) envisioned this global tournament as an opportunity for a bumper year. Giving football fans the benefit of the doubt — that they might have interests in fancy footwork other than dribbling and enjoy more musical pursuits than a cacophony of vuvuzelas — the festival is being extended from 10 to 15 days and starting earlier than usual (on June 20).
Commendably, the festival wants to “showcase” (all four forwards by the principle stakeholders use the same word in the official programme) what South Africa’s artistically rich, financially strapped, multicultural arts have to offer the world, while the world is here.
For their efforts, they understandably hoped for some of the R150-million bounty allocated for arts and culture during the Fifa event and applied for it. After all, as spectacular as the enormous dung beetle puppet rolling the soccer ball was (and it was wonderful) at the Fifa kick-off, the festival does provide a more comprehensive platform for advertising our broader civilised pursuits.
In addition to the unprecedented attention and a large foreign media contingent now scrambling for new angles on life in Africa, it seems several international impresarios, and even some theatre critics, were lured to our shores for the first time, thanks to the World Cup.
The festival wanted a once-off R10-million grant, not to commission favoured artists, but to market the country’s resourceful talent and, most importantly, to create a lasting legacy project in the arts. The minister for arts and culture might be attending the opening ceremony but, to date, the festival has not received any money from the government for this year. As is so often the case in the department’s grey finances, if a decision was made either way it appears not to have been communicated.
The National Lottery Distribution Fund has responded and is promising support for the next three years. Most of the tab has been picked up by the festival’s established sponsors.
Asked whether staging a jumbo festival during the World Cup was the most brilliant or stupid idea, Tony Lankester, festival chief executive, replied: “Ask me in two weeks’ time.”
In the month before the festival theatre producers were unsure how to enter these uncharted waters. The festival, in its 36th year, chose to grab the bull by the horns — or rather the mascot Zakumi by the tail. At least there is no shortage of artists and events — between the combined main and fringe programmes there are more than 500 productions.
Logistically, these uncharted waters posed considerable challenges and expense. Equipment, such as marquees and car hire, was at a premium and it was a battle to get technical crews, who are also asking prohibitive rates. The festival was stung by the airlines. Worried that they would not be able to get seats for the artists, the festival booked tickets well in advance at then-extortionate prices. Fares have now plummeted and there is capacity.
The upside is that audiences need not fret about travel arrangements to get to the festival. Accommodation is available, although the weekend of June 26 is heavily booked, according to Lankester. Sales compared with previous years are very encouraging, he says.
One thing is sure, without the festival the World Cup largesse would have all but bypassed Grahamstown. The Eastern Cape hasn’t managed to attract any team base camps. The festival is laying on extra day trips and has shored up its marketing in Port Elizabeth, where four matches including a quarterfinal are scheduled during the festival period.
Football does make a turn on the stage. The Football Diaries is an autobiographical “meditation on art and sport”, a solo performance by Ahilan Ratnamohan, a young Sri Lankan-Australian player manqué. Football Football, performed by a cast from Italy, Singapore, Bosnia and Slovenia, explores “the art of football” through dance, theatre, video, music and special effects. The Giant Match is a street-theatre production using 32 giant puppets to relate a South African version of Romeo and Juliet. In this allegory the two young lovers are kept apart by a feud between their two families, culminating in a comic football match and a wedding.
Matches, of course, will be screened in Grahamstown. In these euphoric times, combining audiences and spectators will make the festival a special place to be during the World Cup.