The Richmond Hill Street Music Festival organiser has been forced to cancel the festival after the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality’s shock communication a week ago that it will no longer contribute funding.
On Sunday, however, a glimmer of hope appeared with sports, recreation, arts and culture political head Bassie Kamana lauding the festival’s importance and vowing to engage with mayor Gary van Niekerk on Monday.
Alliance Francaise Gqeberha director Guillaume Favier Nirere said the cancellation of the September 7 event was bad news for the culture and social cohesion it promoted, but the organisation had no option.
“It is the only festival in Nelson Mandela Bay where everyone feels welcome whether they are from Summerstrand, the northern areas or Motherwell,” he said.
“This year, we were planning to have a theme linked to the Paris Olympics, and we were going to invite different sports clubs from around the city to come and show their moves.
“We were very excited and looking forward to making things even better than last year.
“However, right now it is impossible to go forward with the festival because we are no longer going to be getting the vital funds we were expecting from the metro, and it is cancelled.
“We are in the process of calling the artists we had lined up to tell them the news.”
Favier Nirere said the festival was launched in 2010 as a major joint promotion of the Alliance and the metro.
The latest expected metro funding related to a three-year agreement the organisation had reached with the municipality.
“The agreement was they would give us R250,000 a year towards the festival, starting in 2022.
“The problem started that year because the funding came late so we had to postpone the festival from the original June 21 [2022] we had scheduled to celebrate the coincidence of the summer solstice in France and the winter solstice here.”
The festival was then moved to September 2022, and the metro’s funding came through in time and a successful event was held that year and in 2023.
However, in April 2024, with planning preparations hotting up for the third festival in the three-part agreement, the first indications from the metro surfaced that the final tranche might not be available because it was outside the financial year.
“This was due to that initial postponement but it seems that made no difference and at the end of last week the metro confirmed they would not able to give us the money for that reason.
“We started straight away to look for alternative funding but we did not manage to get sufficient commitments to cover the shortfall left by the metro pulling out.”
“The metro’s R250,000 was less than one-third of the total costs of staging the festival, but it was vital.
“We know many local musicians, crafters, food trucks and restaurants rely on the festival as an earnings opportunity and we apologise for this situation, as well as to the people of Richmond Hill, who have always supported us.
“But as a small nonprofit, even in previous years we were taking a huge financial risk with the festival — and with the latest situation as it is, we simply can’t afford it any more.”
He said, however, that, together with valued partner Magnetic Storm, it was keen to focus on organising an alternative event in 2025.
“If anyone has an idea or is keen to form a partnership, they are welcome to make contact.”
Discover Mandela Bay projects manager Shaun van Eck said the Richmond Hill Street Festival was a significant event.
“It is our only festival which has as its main objective the promotion of diversity.
“It’s so important to have events that bring all the people of the Bay together, and the Richmond Hill festival does that.
“This success has been recognised by all stakeholders, including the metro.”
He said one of the benefits of the diversity goal was that musicians, craftspeople and food merchants from all corners of the city converged.
“So you will have a guy marketing his unique home-crafted wares that otherwise most of the Bay will not see.
“On average, 8,500 people attend — the families in the day and the party people at night, so it’s a nice mix.”
He said another benefit of the festival was that it brought people back to Richmond Hill, one of the city’s oldest suburbs which, after going through tough times, was regaining its security and vibrancy.
“So this festival helps us to hold onto our heritage.”
Van Eck said it was disappointing that the arts and culture budget allocation had not been stretched to cover the relatively small requirement of the Richmond Hill festival.
“The much larger budget items could have been reduced slightly to allow this special event — which also has the greatest tourism pull of all our festivals — to happen.”
Kamana said on Sunday he was determined to do something about the situation.
“The [sports, recreation, arts and culture] budget is already fully committed for this financial year.
“It is small and doesn’t meet the needs of the metro, and that’s tragic because these events boost the economy and promote social cohesion in the city,” he said.
“We need more festivals and related events that will contribute positively towards the city’s development.
“We need more funds for [sports, recreation, arts and culture]. We are not short of ideas.
“Events like the Richmond Hill Street Festival play a huge role in promoting our tourism industry.
“I will meet the mayor and see how we can save these events.”
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