The Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture (DSRAC) has confirmed its commitment to the National Arts Festival for three years – beginning at the current financial year – to grant R4.1-million towards Festival initiatives. At a meeting held at the end of the Festival, MEC for DSRAC Xoliswa Tom announced: “The government of the Eastern Cape is committed to ensuring that all communities of the province, particularly of the Makana Local Municipality, benefi t economically from the Festival.” She said that the
department will continue to work closely with the Makana Local and the Cacadu District municipalities to ensure that the Festival is a success.
The Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture (DSRAC) has confirmed its commitment to the National Arts Festival for three years – beginning at the current financial year – to grant R4.1-million towards Festival initiatives. At a meeting held at the end of the Festival, MEC for DSRAC Xoliswa Tom announced: “The government of the Eastern Cape is committed to ensuring that all communities of the province, particularly of the Makana Local Municipality, benefi t economically from the Festival.” She said that the
department will continue to work closely with the Makana Local and the Cacadu District municipalities to ensure that the Festival is a success.
She thanked Makana Mayor Vumile Lwana “for continuing to be a shining example of cooperative governance and effective local economic development” and said that the people that win big are those who do not allow a ‘no’ to get the better of them.
“As a department, we want to teach artists not to give up on winning. There are cases when people do not have confidence in you in.
[Fifa President] Sepp Blatter has shown us, he had confidence in us when no one else had. People asked him if he had plan B and C. He said my plan B is South Africa and plan C is South Africa.
So we want to teach them [artists]to manage rejection,” Tom said. Festival CEO Tony Lankester, said one of the most frequently asked questions was whether it was a good idea to host the Festival over 15 days rather than the usual 10 days.
“We gave South Africans the opportunity to juggle their World Cup schedules with a trip to Grahamstown,” Lankester said.
He added that “We also relaunched the Hopper service at the beginning of this year. Was it better than last year? Yes.
Was it a complete success? Far from it. It was problematic in many areas.” He says they hope to come back next year with an even better service.
Lankester said there was pretty much the same sentiment between the Fiddler and Village Green debate
and trading around town.
“We know we have a lot of work to bring it up. But I do believe it was a vast improvement over last year. We are a learning organisation, so we keep learning,” Lankester said.
Happy with the way the Festival worked out, Lankester said they have already begun planning for next year when Festival will run from 30 June to 9 July.
