APPEAL TO SAVE HILTON ARTS FEST GOES VIRAL
‘O ver the years we’ve made you laugh, we’ve made you cry, we’ve made you think. We’ve made you wonder ‘what the hell is going on in this production?’ Now we need to ask you, the audiences of South Africa, to help keep alive the Hilton Arts Festival so we can turn 30,” comedian John Vlismas urges in a video that has gone viral, garnering support to save the Hilton Arts Festival from imminent extinction.
The video forms part of a fundraising campaign to keep the Hilton Arts Festival alive for its 30th birthday next year, and was produced by Durban creative agency Whalley and Associates.
It features many of the country’s finest theatre artists, including John Kani, Athol Fugard, Ismail Mahomed, Fiona Ramsay, Gcina Mhlophe, Amra-Faye Wright, Greig Coetzee, David Qadasi Jenkins and John Van de Ruit.
They all share the significance of the Festival for the arts industry in South Africa, and what it has done for them.
Around the world, Covid-19 has turned theatres’ spotlights into ‘ghost lights’ and the festival is appealing to its audiences and theatre lovers across the globe to help it turn on the spotlight again and open the curtains once more.
A crowdfunding appeal through BackaBuddy has been launched and is gaining global momentum. Photos of supporters and performers from around the world that have been pouring on to the Hilton Arts Festival Facebook page, showing people holding the #Hope4HiltonFest banners high with backdrops of Dubai, Barcelona, Moscow, United Kingdom, Norway, Salzburg, and even the Bahama Islands.
“We absolutely believe that audiences, performers, artists and support services genuinely want the festival to survive and continue into the future, even initially at a scaled down version.
However, right now, not even that is financially viable for us. We are on the brink of extinction,” Hilton Arts Festival director Sue Clarence said.
Within the first month of the campaign, more than R130 000 has already been raised toward the R500 000 target on BackaBuddy.
To view the video and/ donate, visit: https://www.backabuddy.co.za/champion/ project/hilton-festival or follow the Festival on social media: @Hiltonartsfest. Any donation is welcome, no matter how small.