By Gillian Rennie
It was July 1993 when Sue Clarence, who died last month, cooked up the first Hilton Arts Festival (HAF) while she waited in line for a late-night meal at the mother of all South African festivals. She was in Makhanda (then Grahamstown) with arts ally Geoff Thompson at the National Arts Festival and their collective hallucination was born into reality just six weeks later with a handful of productions and a roll of old-fashioned bus tickets to sell them.
In the 30+ years since then, thanks to Clarence’s driving commitment, the Hilton Arts Festival matured into what former HAF chair Iain McMillan calls “KZN’s preeminent annual celebration of the arts”. Clarence built this reputation by coming to the National Arts Festival every winter to find the shows her offspring needed to feed audiences increasingly hungry for quality theatre.
McMillan said: “Sue’s passion for the festival, backed by extraordinary energy, commitment and resourcefulness, saw her earn the respect of patrons and the South African performing arts community. Nurturing the Hilton Festival has truly been Sue’s life work and she leaves a major void.
“As we bid her goodbye, we do so confident that what she spawned, nurtured and saw mature, will remain as a continuing tribute to her. As the Hilton community, we thank her and send our sincere condolences to her daughters, Sian and Julia.”
Copy that. This year’s Festival starts today without one of South Africa’s great impresarios and arts champions in attendance. The food queues will be quieter, theatres emptier.
Cue salutes you, Sue Clarence.
