A plethora of entertainment in Plett
The final school bell for the term – for the fourth year running – rang in the annual Plett Arts Festival which is currently in full swing and promises to be a feast for the senses.
The three-week celebration – which started on June 30 and runs until July 22 – is set to include music, drama, comedy, art exhibitions, food, awardwinning films and much more.
The festival will celebrate a variety of different art forms and is set to bring innovative and “challenging works to a diverse audience”.
One of the highlights on the art front is the exhibition Local Identity which opened on July 3, 2017, at Melvilles Corner.
The curated exhibition presents artworks in which the artists engage with and comment on their relationship with the world around them, with other people and with themselves. As such, the exhibition includes figurative work, such as depictions of the self in relation with others; self-portraits; and works dealing with psycho-social aspects of the self and interpersonal relationships. In addition, there is work on one hand interpreting the urban environment, enclosure and structured living, and, on the other hand, depicting experiences of the romanticism of the pastoral Garden Route landscape.
The exhibiting artists form part of the Contemporary Art Practice (CAP) and entails a group of established, professionally producing artists working with Professor Elfriede Dreyer. Dryer is a well-known curator, artist, writer and Unisa academic and also curates this exhibition. At the moment CAP has twenty members living and working in George, Sedgefield, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay and The Crags.
More than a 100 artworks are on display and for sale.
There will also be walkabouts by the artists on July 6, 13 and 20 from 16:00 to 18:30 and on July 13 at 18:00 there will be a performance in the exhibition venue by Lara Kirsten who will respond to the exhibition content of Local identity.
Festival attendance has grown since its debut in 2014 with more than 1800 festival goers in 2016 alone.
PLETT SUNSET CONCERT SERIES
Among the other winter action, the Plett Sunset Concert Series is also underway. Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday performers showcase their talents on Central Beach between until July 16.
The Plett Literary Liaison event will once again feature on the winter programme and this year will feature Ian Sinclair and The Search for the Rarest Bird in the World with exquisite bird sculptures by local bronze artist Robert Leggat on July 14 at the White House.
The fourth edition of the increasingly popular Plett Food & Film Festival is also again on the programme and takes place between July 10 and 12 this year.
A first of its kind in Africa, the festival showcases top notch films which explore food and everything that goes along with it. To add to the experience these films are then followed by gourmet culinary presentations, linked to the film.
For a full line-up visit http://www. plett-tourism.co.za/wp-content/ uploads/2015/11/Dialy-Diaryfrom-Plett-Culture-and-Heritagemag-2017.pdf