Arts community gets the lowdown on hosting festivals

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Arts administrators, national funders, performers and researchers on Monday agreed with a unanimous voice that the various arts players needed to work together to grow the sector.

A group of more than 50 people attended The Festivals Masterclass at the Tramways Building in Gqeberha.

The event brought high-level industry players together to engage on the economic, cultural and developmental role of festivals in building creative cities.

The Masterclass was hosted by SG Comms in partnership with the South African Cultural Observatory (SACO) and the National Arts Council (NAC).

SACO executive director Unathi Lutshaba was on hand to officially welcome them with SAC0’s Dr Fiona Drummond, who gave an overview of the South African Festivals Economic Impact Calculator.

Drummond was among the panellists discussing the topic together with National Arts Festival chief executive Monica Newton, Concert SA project head Andre le Roux, SA Cities Network chief executive Nosipho Hlatshwayo and National Arts Council organisational effectiveness co-ordinator Lerato Moloko Mphahlele.

Drummond said the South African Festivals Economic Impact Calculator (SAFEIC 2024) was a tool that was developed in 2017 and the 2024 update was the latest version with the aim of illustrating the importance of the creative economy.

“Festivals connect artists to the audiences, they also build social cohesion and cultural capital.

“Importantly for artists, they provide employment including behind the scenes employment, providing income and marketing for the host city,” Drummond said.

Le Roux encouraged the audience to not only rely on the impact calculator, but to use all the tools they had at their disposal which included conducting surveys to get extra information.

Mphahlele advised artists when applying for funding to work on understanding the administrative aspect of being an artist.

Hlatshwayo said the artists had to work together, be involved in local governance and could not avoid politics because that was how they could get policies that would favour the development of the arts.

Newton said, in many cases, the sector did not know what policies were in place in local government for funding independent festivals or service agreements that could be provided by the local municipality.

“Corporate money is on two bases, one is corporate social investment which the arts gets very little of, the other one is the hard marketing budget.

“What the marketing budget wants to see is the return of investment, it wants to know how many people, if it is a bank, how many bank accounts were opened, if it was cars how many cars were sold.

“In the world I currently live in, the national government positioning, relative to festivals, is unclear so most sectors require some degree of certainty for investment,” Newton said.

SG Comms managing director Sesethu Gqomo-Seyibokwe, who will be hosting her inaugural Vive La Vivre Festival, said she realised it was more than just building a stage but required governance, economic modelling, compliance and sustainability as well as a long-term vision.

“What is the real economic impact of the festival, how do we measure value beyond the ticket sales, how do we position festivals as serious contributors to urban development and creative economy?

“This masterclass is not just about theory, it is also about empowerment to ensure that festivals in cities like ours are globally competitive,” Gqomo-Seyibokwe said.