Arts Festival

After 11 days, 300 shows, 43 venues and thousands of visitors who laughed, wept, danced, shopped, ate, drank and walked through the dusty streets of Makhanda; the 50th National Arts Festival has ended.

Eskom has added 800MW of power to the national grid with the addition of a new generating unit at Kusile power station.

The National Arts Festival is getting its mojo back. After the pandemic knocked the premier national and international arts event into near extinction, the 10-day-Makhanda event has seen a slow and steady revival of support from around the country.  From attending the opening weekend to returning for the final weekend, the shift was palpable.

This play is not for everyone. It asks you to question, where are you from?

Having pursued a musical journey from Umlazi in KwaZulu-Natal to New York and back,saxophonist Linda Sikhakane’s compositions and performances reflect a global jazz outlook that is firmly rooted in the local.

SIVENATHI GOSA Incorporating classical ballet with contemporary dance, along with opera and African instrumental sounds, Hatched Ensemble brought the appreciative audience at The Guy Butler Auditorium to their feet on Monday. The insightful and thought-provoking production by choreographer and dancer, Mamela Nyamza, revisits her solo work, Hatched, which she first performed in 2007.

In the dungeon of the Monument building, a circular room opens up like a cave,. Hanging on the cement walls are mermaids, myths and mystery. The Standard Bank winner for visual art, Lady Skollie (Laura Windvogel-Molifi) is finding her own method of preserving lost ancestral history in her exhibition Groot Gat.

Theatremaker, poet and artist Koleka Putuma is reaching into South African memory like mushroom mycelium.Standard Bank’s inaugural young artist winner for poetry explores the healing properties of natural psychedelic substances in her multimedia installation, Imvuselelo (revival), at the Monument Gallery at the National Arts Festival.

Black bodies sway on stage, a crown of rope connected to the rafters appears like a noose around their necks. A deep rumble, waves of white noise and projections of clouds fill the space.

Take a bite of this juicy booty!Drag performer Pichi Keane (pronounced Peachy-Keen) was one of the first artisans to step onto the National Arts Festival stage on Thursday morning for her solo extravaganza: Ripe ’n Ready at the Monument.

When a show has an age restriction of over 18, you know it’s going to be a riot.  Raunchy and full of wit, the comedy show Trash Mouth, performed by award-winning comedian Kate Pinchuck, 30, from Cape Town, will be making a pit stop in East London, before its run at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda later this week.

White Noise is not your typical stand-up comedy show. Aside from the cool tech-savvy multimedia elements — from cartoon animations to video inserts and slides — added to make the show a more interesting for online audiences, White Noise is not lighthearted, cheerful or happy-go-lucky.

If there's anything to take from SA Comedian, actor and writer Rob van Vuuren's latest one man show at the National Arts Festival it is this — the notion that we are doing enough and we are enough, and not to let anyone tell us otherwise.

We could all go blue in the face repeating just how different, odd and maybe even “lacking” a live-streamed performance can be, but the first installment of the National Art's Festival's The Very Big Comedy Show proves that there is definitely some merit in having the ability to bring laughter into our homes with the simple click of a button.

More than 250 artists from the Eastern Cape will showcase their talent at the virtual National Arts Festival starting on Thursday.