So was it right to have a longer and more event-packed National Arts Festival? What can be said is that when the organisers decided to have a 14-day instead of the usual 10-day affair it was made more than a year ago. These good men and women are not psychic or soothsayers.
So was it right to have a longer and more event-packed National Arts Festival? What can be said is that when the organisers decided to have a 14-day instead of the usual 10-day affair it was made more than a year ago. These good men and women are not psychic or soothsayers.
They’re business-minded executives who projected that World Cup 2010 would have a spill-over effect on our usual Festival activities.
Half a million foreign visitors to SA; tens of thousands of fans to Port Elizabeth and thousands heading east to Grahamstown. See where this is going?
But so what if there are not as many visitors? So what if the streets are less crowded with sculptors with wooden buffalo and awful batik fine artists?
So a show or three were cancelled? It’s the same World Cup story everywhere. At least we tried to put on a show for our visitors.
Most other so-called cities have been dying of greed, especially around accommodation. At least Grahamstown is sold out as usual but we’ve not heard the kind of stories that have consumed other South African cities.
Moreover, shopping for underwear at Church Square is decidedly downmarket compared to seeing Sibongile Khumalo or Kesivan Naidoo live.
We had to be different. We are an arty city after all. We also didn’t know that the vuvuzela would be the most famous musical instrument of 2010.
For me, the cherry so far goes to Pantsula for Life, a Fringe dance show that interprets ghetto life through the dance lives of township residents, past and present.
It’s South African and inner city dance at its finest. Pantsula for Life has a more than a decent story by Bongani Linda, too.
But the choreography of Jabulani (no relation to the controversial World Cup ball!) Dube! To witness such rigorous and aesthetically pleasing workouts is beyond belief for arm-chair intellectuals like me.
This year’s festival is also poignant for two particularly noteworthy artistes who have passed on. The KZN-born Busi Mhlongo was last the headline act during last year’s Fest.
Sadly, the 63- year old finally lost a long battle against breast cancer on 15 June. She was a fine artiste who was not as well-regarded in her homeland as she should have been, perhaps like Lucky Dube, another fallen great more famous around the rest of Africa than back home.
There are no prizes for guessing how much star-power Michael Jackson packed though. The King of Pop died on 26 June, 2009 and the past week has been rather frenzied with remembrances of a man who would have been just 51 today had he not been over-dosing on prescription medication.
Pantsula for Life even commemorate him in one of their performances. I am going back to seethem again!
•If Sim had to sing for food, he’d have starved before hitting puberty.
