By Thubelihle Mathonsi and Ndalo Mbombo
The National Arts Festival countdown has begun. Artists are nearing the final stage of their rehearsals, organisations are confirming partnerships and funding applications, and audiences are sitting at the edge of their seats booking tickets from the 2025 NAF programme online.
Monica Newton, CEO of Grahamstown Foundation and the National Arts Festival, spoke to Grocott’s Mail and RMR this week. The customary chaos of preparations will soon transform into Makhanda’s richest feast, and we await the 51st festival “with breathless anticipation”. Newton said that at the heart of the Festival is the commitment to introducing audiences to different and new kinds of works and languages: “The togetherness — that gathering, that partnership, that making it happen — because it’s important and necessary.”
The line-up is incomplete — unusually for this late in the day — but Newton confirmed that audiences need not worry about the outstanding items on the programme. She said that “90% of the shows available for booking” are confirmed and that this includes all the shows on the website. The remaining 10% of shows are part of the Fringe programme, which has had a funding challenge this year. For those worried about potential scheduling changes, NAF always refunds tickets. “So you never have to be worried about the extent to which we’re not going to give you your money back if anything changes,” Newton explained.
Every edition of the Festival presents its own challenges, and the 2025 edition is no different. “There are lots of different elements of the Festival ongoing, and every year brings a unique set of complexity and challenges,” she said. “The biggest challenge is that we raise most of the money yearly.” This “macro-challenge” has been intensified this time by “the late funding call announcement released by the National Arts Council on 22 May 2025, requesting all artists registered under the Fringe programme to submit applications by 30 May 2025”. The outcomes of the call will be released on 16 June 2025, just 10 days before the NAF curtains go up.
So stay on the edge of your seat. In the meantime, find the programme at nationalartsfestival.co.za
