The lights are rigged, the sound is being tested and Makhanda is starting to see new and familiar faces in Frontier Country as the annual National Arts Festival kicks off on Thursday.
After a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic and various levels of lockdown, the 2022 instalment of the National Arts Festival will be live, but slightly trimmed down.
With 50% capacity at all venues and Rhodes University enforcing a vaccine mandate on all campus venues, organisers of the festival had a few obstacles to overcome in preparation for the 2022 programme.
National Arts Festival chief executive Monica Newton said while the previous two years had been online, the events crews were well-versed in working under Covid-19 protocol from filming live performances to showcases online.
She said the limited seating would not have a significant effect on the revenue of the festival as a whole.
“There are other factors as well, like professional networking and opportunities for collaboration, exposure to local and international producers and the chance to stage work for an audience which informs their decision to be at the NAF,” Newton said.
However, she acknowledged that the hardest hit would be Fringe artists who attended the festival with their own funds and needed to make money on ticket sales.
“We are realistic about audience numbers,” Newton said.
“These are tough economic times, but the show must go on and we have to learn how to stage live events despite the challenges.
“We hope everyone will support them this year. Don’t just buy one ticket, buy two.”
Rhodes’s vaccine mandate at venues on campus means ticket holders will have to produce a vaccine certificate or a negative Covid-19 test taken within the past 72 hours or proof of Covid-19 illness from within the past three months.
To assist ticket holders who may not be vaccinated, Newton said, the festival would provide a subsidised testing station where ticket holders would be able to get tested for R50.
“We apologise sincerely for this inconvenience and would like to assure our customers that no vaccine mandate is in place at any of our other venues,” Newton said.
Water issues, which previously plagued the festival, remained an issue, but was more manageable this year Newton said.
“The water situation is largely stabilised, but with strict water restrictions still in place.”
Some notable headline shows include the works of the Standard Bank Young Artists, Hamlet, which is performed through life-size puppets, along with big names like Amanda Black and Bongeziwe Mabandla.
A rare opportunity to see Sri Lankan artist Venuri Perera’s live art performance, Passport Blessing Ceremony, is also a must as well as deus.ex.machina, a collaboration between Darkroom Contemporary and artists from the Netherlands.
Newton said the 35th National Jazz Festival would play host to musicians from Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Romania, Britain and Spain who would be collaborating with them for a “very special celebration of jazz”.
At the Village Green, festival patrons can look forward to an introduction of cook-offs in a new food experience tent during the second weekend of the festival.
“We’re calling on all our Eastern Cape supporters to come back and enjoy the festival once again and, if you’ve never been, make this the year,” Newton said.
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