There will be municipal water in the taps during the giant 42nd National Arts Festival, and the 11 days of 600 shows at 60 venues will be amazing.
This was said by government leaders at the media launch of the 42nd Grahamstown festival yesterday.
Pemmy “DJ” Majodina, as the Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture MEC was dubbed by Arts and Culture Deputy Minister Rejoice Mabudafhasi, said more money and effort was going into building the Fingo Festival and bringing shows closer to the township.
But she had strong words for the 10-year- old township accommodation project, Makana iKwam, saying it was time to bring in a new cohort of entrepreneurs who would keep their businesses going throughout the year, and not just during the festival.
She said the festival had launched the talents of many famous Eastern Cape artists.
Festival chief executive Tony Lankester said ticket sales were strong, but the festival had taken a view against having to grow year on year.
“We don’t want to focus on the tens of thousands who will be coming,” he said.
“We want to change one person’s outlook.
“It is intimate and personal. We are focusing on the one [patron]. And over and over again.”
Makana mayor Nomhle Gaga said the James Kleynhans pumps had been dried out and baked in East London and had been driven back and put back in place and aligned yesterday.
She said valves in the water pipe system were being opened but sometimes closed to allow the system to balance and settle.
Mabudafhasi said the festival was both an Eastern Cape and international phenomenon. “In terms of diversity and scale, it is the only one of its kind,” she said.
The government leaders and Lankester reaffirmed the contribution of the festival to the provincial GDP of R340million of which R90-million was earned by Grahamstown and the Makana local government.
Lankester said 150 extra police had been brought in and safety was a priority, “but don’t do silly things, like walk alone at night, leave a handbag in a car or hanging over a chair.
“You are in a wonderland but be realistic.”
Arts and Culture head of department Mzolisi Matutu said the value of the festival to the people of the province was growing in leaps and bounds.
Majodina said that although the festival had excellent tangible benefits for Makana, her department was pushing to move it more “towards the township” bit by bit, starting with an increase in the funding of the Fingo Festival.
“Come 2017, we will have more programmes. We are testing the waters now.”
Lankester said not one tavern owner had come forward and offered to become a festival venue.
He urged them to step forward. The answer would be a “resounding yes”, he said.
He called the new 2016-18 R17-million funding agreement with the Arts and Culture Department a “renewal of our vows” and recognition of the R32-million-a-year festival as a national flagship project.
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