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Arts festivals
The range of arts festivals around South Africa offers visitors the opportunity to combine their pursuit of culture with sightseeing, wine tasting, beach visits, wildlife viewing, history, palaeoanthropology and relaxing in some of South
Africa’s most beautiful spots.
The National Arts Festival, held annually in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, is one of the largest and most diverse arts gatherings of its kind staged in Africa. It showcases southern African talent in all arts disciplines and there is also growing interest and participation from artists from the rest of Africa and the world. The Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees is a vibrant festival for the performing arts, presented mainly, but not exclusively, in Afrikaans. It is held annually in Oudtshoorn in the first quarter of the year. Disciplines include drama, cabaret and contemporary and classical music. The Arts Alive International Festival, held in Johannesburg, is an annual festival of music, dance, theatre and visual arts. Over the years, Arts Alive has become synonymous with high-quality performances by artists from around the globe.Heritage-reclamation festivals are also held at local level in communities destroyed by apartheid, such as Vrededorp (Fietas) in Johannesburg. The Mangaung Cultural Festival (Macufe) in Bloemfontein is gaining status as one of the biggest cultural tourism events in southern Africa. Aardklop, held annually in Potchefstroom, North West, is inherently Afrikaans, but universal in character. The festival provides a platform for the creativity and talent of local artists. Other festivals that attract visitors at both national and international level are the Joy of Jazz International Festival; Oppikoppi; Calabash; the One City Festival in Taung, North West; the Awesome Africa Music Festival in Durban; the Spier Summer Festival at Spier Estate in the Western Cape; and the Windybrow Theatre Festival in Johannesburg.The Department of Arts and Culture and the NAC support numerous festivals throughout South Africa, including the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, Port St Johns Festival, Splashy Fen Music Festival in Durban and the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. The departments of arts and culture and of tourism have a forum of festival directors to maximise tourism opportunities.
Theatre
The theatre scene in South Africa is vibrant, with many active spaces across the country offering everything from indigenous drama, music, dance, cabaret and satire, to West End and Broadway hits, classical music, opera and ballet.South African theatre is internationally acclaimed as unique and top-class.Apart from early productions, notably the ground-breaking musical King Kong in the 1960s, theatre created in South Africa by South Africans only began to make an impact with the advent of Johannesburg’s innovative Market Theatre in the mid-1970s, just as the cultural, sporting and academic boycott was taking hold. The Market Theatre was formally opened on 21 June 1976. It was there that Johannesburg theatregoers were introduced to the work of most of South Africa’s leading playwrights and directors, including Welcome Msomi, Zanemvula (Zakes) Mda, Pieter-Dirk Uys, Gibson Kente, Paul Slabolepszy, Mbongeni Ngema, Adam Small, PG du Plessis, Kessie Govender, Bartho Smit, Maishe Maponya, Percy Mtwa, Deon Opperman, Reza de Wet, Matsemela Manaka and many others. It was to the Market Theatre that Athol Fugard brought his A Lesson from Aloes, Master Harold Й and the Boys, The Road to Mecca, A Place with the Pigs, My Children! My Africa! and Playland. At the Market, Barney Simon and his actors developed in workshop Cincinatti Р Scenes from City Life, Call Me Woman, Black Dog Inj’emnyana, Outers, Born in the RSA and Woza Albert!
The performing arts marketed South Africa to overseas audiences most effectively during the 1980s, specifically through theatre and musical productions. However, with the new century underway, the pendulum is swinging back, and, in nurseries such as the Market Theatre Laboratory, the Liberty Theatre on the Square’s Saturday Children’s Theatre workshops, the Cape Town Theatre Lab and the Johannesburg Youth Theatre, new shoots of talent are burgeoning and blooming, nurtured by events like the Market’s community and young writers’ festivals. In recent years, South African theatre has taken the entertainment world by storm with commendable reviews for Umoja, The Lion King and Kat and The Kings. The reception these productions receive in capitals of the world testifies to the high quality of indigenous South African theatre.
Music
South Africa has nurtured the development of an array of distinctive styles of music, and it has contributed significantly to music heard on the continent.
These styles range from South African jazz, which describes a range of music from early marabi inspired sounds in the late 1930s and 1940s by bands like the Merry Blackbirds
Orchestra, to current performers such as trumpeter Hugh Masekela, Jonas Gwangwa, Abdullah Ibrahim, Jimmy Dludlu, Judith Sephuma and others. Kwaito and hip-hop are very popular. They combine elements of rap, reggae and other musical styles into a distinctly South African style. Kwaai Jazz is gaining momentum.Music is one of the key cultural industries identified in the Cultural Industrial Growth Strategy Report, and government has committed itself to harnessing its potential. In addition to its cultural value, music plays an important economic role in the country, generating significant copyright revenue. In music, the department has solid foundations to build on. These include the annual South African Music Week, the in-school education programme run in conjunction with the Department of Basic Education, and the Moshito Music Conference and Exhibition.The Taking South African Music to the World Programme is aimed at improving export opportunities for South African music. The Department of Arts and Culture funds a number of musical ensembles directly and indirectly, through the NAC.
Midem 2010
The MarchЋ International du Disque et de l’Edition Musicale (Midem) is an international music market, held annually in France, and attracts in excess of 10 000 music-business practitioners who showcase their products. It is the most prestigious music trade-show in the world. The event is also designed to provide opportunities for business networking. South Africa had its first pavilion at Midem in January 2005.
South Africa continues to participate in the Midem. The aim of the department’s participation is to market and promote South African music abroad and learn from peers so that the country can be globally competitive.South Africa was the country of honour at the 2010 edition of Midem. This means that the country was given the opportunity to market and promote South African music through live events, publicity and exclusive branding. The fair, which has been held annually since 1967, took place in Cannes, France, from 23 to 27 January. It brought together the major players in the international music industry, including musicians, business people, media, and cultural policy makers. South African Music Week
The South African Music Week is an annual project that celebrates South African music on radio, television and through live events in the community. The project is considered the largest platform for developing South Africa’s live and recording music industry through broadcasting, workshops, awareness and the promotion of local music products. During Music Week, many broadcasters increase airplay of South African music, providing artists with a platform to market their products.
Moshito Music Conference and Exhibition
The Department of Arts and Culture continues to host the annual Moshito Conference and Exhibition, which has become the key African continent music exhibition and marketing point.
The exhibition is aimed at promoting collaboration among players from both the private and the public sectors. The annual event is designed to provide opportunities for business networking; information exchange; music-business education; promotion and product development for national
music producers, performers, individuals and entities providing support services; as well as to strengthen business opportunities for the music industry and related media.Support for the Southern African Electronic Music Conference
The electronic music sector is one of the strategic platforms for growth of the local music industry. The sector has shown its strength in appealing to the youth market in terms of music sales. In 2006, the Department of Arts and Culture for the first time entered into a partnership with Deejays United (DJU) a body formed by individual DJs and music-industry practitioners to address the plight of aspiring practitioners through skills development.The partnership has strengthened the efforts of the DJU and the conference, and played a critical role in increasing the scale at which the project was pitched, thus allowing many aspiring music producers to be accommodated.
Dance
South African dance is unique in its vitality and energy. More and more South African dance companies, individual dancers and choreographers are being invited to perform at festivals throughout Europe, Australia and the United States of America.
Contemporary work ranges from normal preconceptions of movement and per¬formance art or performance theatre to the completely unconventional.Added to this is the African experience, which includes traditional dance inspired by wedding ceremonies, battles, rituals and the trifles of everyday life. An informal but highly versatile performance venue in Johannesburg, The Dance Factory, provides a permanent platform for a variety of dance and movement groups.The Wits Theatre (part of the University of the Witwatersrand) is also a popular dance venue. It is home to the annual First National Bank (FNB) Dance Umbrella.The FNB Dance Umbrella 2010, presented by First National Bank in association with the NAC and the Market Theatre ran from 27 February to 14 March.There were performances at various Johannesburg theatres: the University of Johannesburg Arts Centre in Auckland Park, Wits Theatre in Braamfontein, Dance Factory, Market Theatre and the Barney Simon Theatre in Newtown.The festival featured choreographers and companies from all over South Africa, and presented work ranging from community-based/youth groups, young up-and-coming choreographers and new commissioned work from South African artists to international companies. The Cape Town City Ballet, started in 1934 as the University of Cape Town Ballet Company, is the oldest ballet company in the country.
The largest ballet company is the South African Ballet Theatre, situated in Johannesburg.
Performing Arts Institutions or Playhouses The following arts institutions assist to create a sustainable performing arts industry based on access, excellence, diversity and redress. The institutions receive annual transfers from the Department, but also generate their own revenue through ticket sales, donor assistance, sponsorships and rental income.
For more information about Performing Arts Institutions, contact the Sub-Directorate: Performing Arts Portfolio
at Tel: (012) 441 3627
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