This article first appeared in THE WEEKENDER

4th April 2009

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The Main programme of this year’s National Arts Festival was launched earlier this week, heralding a “new face” for the Festival in 2009 – or, more accurately, faces.

Two of those new faces are CEO Tony Lankester and Director Ismail Mahomed, who continue to joke modestly that the departure of former Festival head Lynette Marais after twenty years at the helm left a void that could only be filled by making two appointments.

In addition, the Festival itself has a fresh identity (it has, in corporate-speak, been re-branded). Along with a distinctive logo, advertising agency Ireland/Davenport have provided the Festival with a catchy slogan: “10 Days of Amazing”.

The ten days in question for 2009 are 2-11 July, during the traditional winter holiday period – ensuring that Festival-goers will still have to brace themselves for chilly Grahamstown mornings. Moreover, as novice and veteran festinos alike will be pleased to discover, most of the elements that go into making a successful Festival programme remain consistent: the heady mix of theatre, visual art, dance, music, literature, film and crafts that has sustained the Festival (rather, some would argue, that has been sustained by the Festival) for many years.

Nevertheless, there are some changes worth noting. The Village Green Market, a hub of craft sellers and food stalls and hay bales and beer tents that has in recent years become, as Lankester puts it, “in need of invigoration”, will be moved to the Rhodes University campus.

Furthermore, the Winter School will now be known as Think!Fest and will encourage more interactive seminar-style events than straight lectures. Topics include 2010- and other sport-related issues, spirituality and sexuality, constitutional debates and a “Legends and Legacies” series profiling the lives of significant South African public figures who have died in recent years.

The comparatively young sub-festival previously known as SpiritFest will expand its focus to incorporate not just Christianity but Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and other religions under the umbrella of FaithFest.

Other, more well-established “festivals with the Festival” will remain important elements of the programme: the Standard Bank Jazz Festival for musos, the Student Theatre Festival, WordFest for the literati and the Children’s Arts Festival. And, of course, there is the Fringe – what many consider the beating heart of the National Arts Festival.

The launch event, however, concentrated on the Main programme, as Mahomed plotted out a rough sketch of what’s on offer along chronological and geographical axes.

Chronological, because the Festival organisers have identified a number of significant anniversaries in 2009: Fatima Dike became SA’s first published black female playwright a mere 20 years ago; Moving Into Dance Mophatong is just over 30 years old; Athol Fugard’s earliest plays appeared on South African stages some 50 years ago; Billie Holiday died 50 years ago; SA composer Michael Moerane was born 100 years ago; Louis Braille and Charles Darwin were both born 200 years ago; and so on. Each of these individuals will be commemorated in some way at this year’s Festival.

Geographically, because this year promises to be truly global in scope: from a celebration of African American music to the first fruits of Proyecto 34ºS, an artistic exchange between Argentina and SA; from the brooding Irish spirit of Samuel Beckett to the Filipino filmmakers who are the special focus of the film screenings; from Indian dancers to Israeli jazz bands; the list is exhausting.

African arts practitioners will also feature strongly, and those who have been following events north of the Limpopo with a combination of hope and despair will no doubt be interested to see a Zimbabwean play titled Two Leaders, or to hear what inimitable performance poet Comrade Fatso has to say about Mugabe and company’s latest hi-jinx.

The presence of “spoken word” poetry on the Main programme is a first – one of many firsts in 2009, not least of which are the six theatre premières: among these are Mike van Graan’s Iago’s Last Dance and, continuing the pattern of successful stage adaptations of literary works in recent years, James Ngcobo’s version of Fred Khumalo’s novel Touch my Blood and Helen Iskander’s take on The Famished Road by Ben Okri.

In similar vein, the film version of J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace (starring John Malkovich) will première alongside a variety of locally-produced films.

Finally, long-time sponsor of the Festival, Standard Bank, is bringing together a host of recipients (past and present) of its Young Artist Award to collaborate on musical, theatrical and dance projects.

Collaborations of a different kind will be a key part of the Festival’s aim to mentor and develop young artists, continuing the “Hands On! Masks Off!” programme, residency schemes like The Remix Laboratory and combined workshop/performance spaces such as The Studio Project.

* Booking kits will be available later this month at branches of Standard Bank and Exclusive Books, and booking opens in May.