More than 250 artists from the Eastern Cape will showcase their talent at the virtual National Arts Festival starting on Thursday.
The festival, which would have been both virtual and physical, will now be 100% virtual following the adjusted level 4 lockdown announced by president Cyril Ramaphosa last week.
Eastern Cape sport, recreation, arts & culture MEC Fezeka Nkomonye said the department had invested money into the festival in an effort to support the creative sector which had been hard hit by the pandemic.
The R2m that we put into the festival, specifically to showcase the Eastern Cape, reaffirms our commitment to supporting the sector, in moving from relief to recovery
“The R2m that we put into the festival, specifically to showcase the Eastern Cape, reaffirms our commitment to supporting the sector, in moving from relief to recovery.
“I’m particularly pleased with the work taking place in our theatres, Mandela Bay theatre complex in Gqeberha and Guild theatre in East London, where the work of our artists is being recorded and packaged for this virtual platform.”
It includes 64 participants in eight jazz groups from all districts in the province, 30 dancers and many more, Nkomonye said.
The festival confirmed this week it would go fully online for the second year in a row.
Hopes of having a live audience element at the 2021 “Makhanda experience” were dashed by the level 4 lockdown measures announced by Ramaphosa. The regulations prohibit all cultural, social and political gatherings except funerals.
It had envisioned a “hybrid event” with both live and online shows and included staging a small live programme in its hometown of Makhanda from Thursday as well as a live programme of shows called Standard Bank Presents in Cape Town and Durban
Working quickly, the team moved to record all these shows for inclusion in the online programme. Now the festival will be fully online for its second stay-at-home edition.
NAF CEO Monica Newton said the 2021 festival had been built with change in mind.
“We knew we might need a plan B and this was a part of our risk mitigation strategy from the start.
“The festival team is working at 200% to adapt our live programme to this new scenario to stick to our original July 8 opening date.
“We are confident that we can pull it off and the National Arts Festival online will take place from 8-31 July”.
The reimagined festival will be hosted on the festival’s website and visitors to the experience will be able to securely purchase tickets and watch their shows off the same platform.
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