Renowned South African storyteller, Gcina Mhlophe, will be one of the special guests making Fingo Festival their home for a few days this festival and Fingo Festival Director, Xolile Madinda, has urged families to come and enjoy the fun.
Renowned South African storyteller, Gcina Mhlophe, will be one of the special guests making Fingo Festival their home for a few days this festival and Fingo Festival Director, Xolile Madinda, has urged families to come and enjoy the fun.
Fingo Festival is an organisation that is devoted to transforming communities through the arts.
This year's Fingo Festival will run for four days – from 8–11 July.
This is shorter than usual due to funding constraints.
Xolile Madinda, the director of the Fingo Festival, says they normally try to do more with less so that they can bring the best possible experience to people in the township.
Their focus is on sessions that are dedicated to children, creativity, performance and dialogues that engage with and question the social issues that concern the community.
Madinda says that, this year, they feel that have truly finalised their concept of the festival as an event that focuses on these particular areas.
2015 is a particularly rich year for the children coming to the Fingo Festival.
"This year we are having a special guest, Gcina Mhlophe, for two days to read stories to the children in the morning, we have Thandazile joining to make the kids laugh, Captain Kemp for team building and illustrators to help them get creative," said Xolile.
"We would like parents to bring their children and come and have fun with us, four days of fun," he continued.
The Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of South Africa (REDISA) will assist the festival with a marquee to cover up the square in case of bad weather, giving people a space to watch the performances in comfort.
Plus the Fingo Festival is also supporting local artists appearing on the National Arts Festival Fringe.
The Around Hip-Hop Sessions, the sessions that have been representing the Grahamstown hip hop movement for some time, will present The Return of The Cipher – a three day hip hop festival that, it says, seeks to revive the true essence of the hip hop culture through its five elements – at The Vic during the early part of the festival.
These sessions are a shared project of the Fingo Festival, Blah Ze Blah and Heavenly Approved Productions.
The idea is to unite local emcees to bring the boombap oomph to this year's festival.
For more details, check out www.fingofestival.co.za or find Fingo Festival page on Facebook.
You could also call 082 591 5612 or email info@fingofestival.co.za.
Read about the Return of the Cypher on p241 of the National Arts Festival programme.
