National arts fest reflects on society
All set for this year’s event taking place in Grahamstown, writes Ashraf Johaardien
SINCE its inception in 1974, the National Arts Festival has always served to hold a mirror up to society. The way in which it has done that may have shifted over the years, but its purpose has remained constant.
In an article called “Revolutionary Trends at the National Arts Festival 2017”, academic and playwright Anton Krueger observes that: “Everybody’s festival is different. Each individual charts their own course in navigating this vast, unwieldy, multidisciplinary, annual festival of festivals in the Eastern Cape.”
Having attended the festival since 1993, I would venture to add that not only is everybody’s experience of the event different, but that every edition of the festival is different.
Some years the changes are almost imperceptible, while in other years, the changes are more radical.
Perhaps Alec Mullins is not used as a dance venue one year, or there is a new producer behind the scenes, or there are six Standard Bank Young Artists instead of the usual five, or maybe the location of the Village Green Market has changed (for the third time).
The scale and impact of the change will usually find its mirror in the reactions of artists and audiences.
In his reflection on the 2017 National Arts Festival, cultural activist and playwright Mike van Graan uses the various locations of the Spur in Grahamstown as a metaphor for his changing experience of the festival over the years.
I have vivid memories of the Spur, not only in Grahamstown but throughout my life, and it is indeed a great metaphor for change quite simply because, like the festival, the franchise has been around for decades and, largely because it has had the fortitude and resilience to morph and adapt to a world – and an audience – changing at record speed.
Long recognised for their familyorientated offering, the Spur Corporation creates value through its relationships with stakeholders within the context of the external environment, which includes economic conditions, social concerns and the broader natural environment.
In much the same vein, late Professor Alan Crump, who served as chairperson of the festival’s artistic committee from 1990 to 1999, is quoted as having said: “Art inevitably expresses the nature of society: its pressures, hopes, insecurities and aspirations, particularly in a country like ours, which has undergone so many radical changes over so short a time.”
Now in its 44th year, the National Arts Festival will run from June 28 to July 8 in Grahamstown.
The National Arts Festival programme is online and for live booking, visit www. nationalartsfestival.co.za/