This article first appeared in THE WEEKENDER

11th July 2009

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If you’re a denizen of Grahamstown, or from the Eastern Cape, or were once a student at Rhodes University, this historic varsity town is a cosy and familiar place. Standing on Gunfire Hill (the site of the 1820 Settler Monument Building) and looking down over the small city, which can be taken in with a brief sweep of the eyes, you wouldn’t think it’s easy to get lost here.

Yet each year, the National Arts Festival brings thousands of culture vultures from around South Africa – and, indeed, the globe – to Grahamstown in search of the arts, bohemian living, late-night partying and general invigoration in the cold mid-winter; and, whether you’re a hardened Jo’burger, a Capetonian sophistiqué or an inhabitant of any big metropole, you’re guaranteed to become disorientated at some point. If the throngs of colourful festival-goers, the thousands of posters competing for your attention, the street vendors and the temptations of numerous restaurants and pubs don’t confuse you, the plethora of performance and exhibition venues will.

To get your bearings, start at the Monument. It’s a major hub of the Festival; stick around here all day and you’ll catch at least some of the action. For one thing, it houses the largest-capacity auditorium in town, the Guy Butler Theatre – named after a man who was one of the key figures in establishing the Festival and conceiving the Monument not just as a self-congratulatory memorial of British history in this country, but as a functional venue for cultural interaction. Here (if you can get hold of tickets) you can enjoy some of the headline events each year.

The vast stage was formerly reserved for manifestations of ‘high culture’ – orchestral concerts, ballets, operas and full-scale Shakespeare productions – and there are still a number of black-tie affairs (on stage, that is; the only dress code at the Festival is ‘Dress Warmly’). Things have changed somewhat in recent years. In 2009, for instance, you can still enjoy a Gala Concert of works by Mozart, Mendelssohn, Sibelius and Verdi with the excellent Cape Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Allan Stephenson, joined by the baritone brilliance of Jacques Imbrailo. But later in the evening, it’s the turn of the stand-up comics. As David Levinsohn joyfully announced (in between loving potshots at his hometown, Springs) while warming up the audience for Northern Irish funnyman Jimeoin: “This is the first time they’ve given us a REAL the-a-tre!”

Jimeoin’s witty observations about human foibles and his hilarious renderings of mundane activities – making tea, sneezing, using a washing machine, putting on a shirt – deserve the grand platform. So, of course, do many of our local comedians; but for now, if it’s more comedy you want, you’ll have to head down the hill to the Bowling Club or the Scout Hall or one of the many other venues that take on lives of their own (utterly removed from their names) during the Festival.

Before you do, however, there’s still more to see at the Monument. Take in an exhibition: Gille de Vlieg’s photographs, which document in stark black-and-white aspects of private and public life in the final decade of apartheid; narrative photographs of a different kind in “Construct”, containing works by various artists that move “Beyond the Documentary Photograph”, as curators Heidi Erdmann and Jacob Lebeko put it; the combination of thick texture and fine detail in Bronwen Findlay’s paintings; or the disturbing figures, sewn from rubber inner tubing, in Nicholas Hlobo’s “Umtshotsho”.

Names with strong Eastern Cape associations adorn the halls and galleries of the Monument: Ntsikana, Thomas Pringle, Olive Schreiner. The latter would have been amused, no doubt, to find herself associated with the film screenings that have become an increasingly popular feature of the Festival. This year, you can enjoy cinema from the Philippines (don’t scoff until you’ve seen the delightful Crying Ladies, about professional funeral mourners, or the provocative Santa Santita, about a willful teenager who is also a miracle worker). The Film Festival offers a chance to see South African movies you may have missed on circuit – compare the different versions of life in this country depicted in White Wedding, Jerusalema and My Black Little Heart, say – or that have never appeared on circuit: short films, old films, obscure films, unknown films.

Finally, there are daily free “sunset concerts” in the foyer of the Monument. Artists do a bit of advertising by performing extracts from their shows, and these are always well attended by eager Festinos who are a bit short on cash, or who just want to get a taste of what’s on.

Not exhausted yet? Good – then it’s time to hit Grahamstown proper. On the way, you could stop off at the Rhodes University campus. The Drama Department, apart from being a good spot to grab a coffee, also houses two performance spaces. Here you’ll find, amongst others, Fatima Dike’s new play, The Return, which adds to a growing body of South African theatre works exploring the domestic, familial repercussions of anti-apartheid activists going into exile (although it doesn’t do so as effectively as, say, John Kani’s Nothing But the Truth).

While you’re in the academic environs of Rhodes, catch a lecture at Think!Fest – what used to be called the Winter School – or attend a book launch at WordFest. Or do something entirely unacademic: head to the Village Green Fair, which has been relocated (from the Village Green) to the university’s main sports fields.

The decision to move the Fair is one of various changes accompanying the new ‘brand’ of the Festival – “10 Days of Amazing”, as the tagline has it. The fundamentals are the same, and there are reassuring signs of continuity: the self-styled “Egg-Man” (his name is self-explanatory when you see the hundreds of eggshells piled on his head), resident jester at the Village Green, can still be seen on the new premises. Nevertheless, the move has proved controversial.

In addition to providing a revamped market space, the relocation was undertaken with a view to providing a new home for the burgeoning “Container Village” of traders who have previously been selling their wares on Church Square (behind Grahamstown’s imposing cathedral) – they would be moved to the now-vacant Village Green.

Many of the traders, however, were irate with what they saw as an intervention that forced them away from the centre of the action, bringing less ‘foot traffic’ past their crafts and products; so stalls were hastily erected in Church Square to accommodate them. Festival CEO Tony Lancaster has reassured all those involved that “Our intent is an honourable one” – trying to plan for what is likely to be a substantially bigger event because of the World Cup in 2010.

Not that 2009 has been ‘small’; indeed, against expectations, Festival participation does not seem to have been too badly affected by the recession. Preliminary ticketing figures indicate that attendance has increased once again, and anecdotal evidence from the crafters at the ‘new’ Village Green suggests that sales have also gone up.

The Festival not only provides a vital source of revenue for Grahamstonians but gives a tremendous economic boost to the Eastern Cape (one of South Africa’s poorest provinces). This regional perspective was emphasised, at a media briefing the day before the Festival started, by Arts and Culture MEC Xoliswa Tom. The provincial government contributes over R4 million annually towards artists who are “skilled but unable to finance themselves” and it is hoped that a large portion of this amount, spent on accommodation and other Festival costs incurred by funding recipients, trickles down into the microeconomy.

Still, judging by the groups of children trying their hand at street performance and at begging, or by the proliferation of men and women desperate to benefit from the influx of visitors through informal entrepreneurship (car guarding, hawking and so on), the commendable efforts of the Festival organisers to include rather than exclude disadvantaged communities are not enough. The poor must also be considered for the other 50 weeks of the year – in other words, government implementation of macro-economic policy must become more effective.

Unfortunately, politicians are better at talking than working, adept at ceremony not service. As in 2008, the official opening of the Festival took place at the Miki Yili stadium in Joza, the settlement that sprawls over the hills and valleys to the east of Grahamstown. This is both a symbolic step and part of the attempt to grow the number of Festival activities in an area where most of Grahamstown’s de facto population resides. Yet National Minister for Arts and Culture Lulu Xingwana, City Mayor Vumile Lwana and other VIPs demonstrated the scant regard South Africa’s politicians tend to show their constituents, keeping a patient audience (and performers shivering in skimpy costumes) waiting for almost two hours at the opening event while they “observed protocol” in the municipal chambers.

But back to the Festival proper. Where were we? Somewhere between the Monument and the township, no doubt at any one of Grahamstown’s many halls. A school hall, a church hall, a Masonic hall – you name it, it’s being used as a performance venue for the beating heart of the National Arts Festival: the “Fringe”. Comedy, drama, dance, music, physical theatre, visual arts, poetry ... whatever you’re looking for, it’s on the Fringe.

Enjoy a revival of an iconic piece of twentieth century theatre, such as Edward Albee’s Zoo Story (Chris Weare directing Scott Sparrow and Nick Pauling) at St Andrew’s College. Brave the steep hill up to Hoërskool PJ Olivier and savour a South African classic, like Athol Fugard’s Hello and Goodbye, or a “Festival Classic” like the outlandish Raiders shows produced each year by father-and-son team Nicholas and Luke Ellenbogen.

There are any number of artists who have entrenched themselves as Festival favourites. Guy Buttery, guitarist extraordinaire, turns a murky room at the Graham Hotel into an incandescent space filled with otherworldly sounds from his guitar (and sitar) strings. Brett Bailey, king of the site-specific performance, this year investigates the recently-defunct Grahamstown Railway Terminal and, in Blood Diamonds, exposes remnants of a sordid colonial history than many Grahamstonians would prefer to forget.

Then there are the shows that deserve a bigger audience, such as Paydirt at the Victoria Girls’ High School gymnasium. This endearing production presents a series of variations on the Jim-comes-to-Joburg theme and shows how the lure of lustre has always tainted both black and white experiences of Egoli.

No matter what the artistic merits of a production may be, the key to success for Festival performers is procuring audience members. Although the sheer number of Fringe productions means that theatre practitioners are in competition for ‘bums on seats’, collaborations are common (“You direct my show, I’ll star in yours”).

Moreover, there are initiatives such as the Cape Town Edge, which has taken what was a  generic Festival venue and turned it into an attraction. At Princess Alice Hall, instead of the usual hodge-podge of events with no sense of continuity, those performing under the Cape Town Edge banner offer a diverse programme of shows and maintain a welcoming atmosphere throughout the day. Included in the portfolio are shows that have previously had success in Grahamstown (the dark Pictures of You and the ‘light’ Rumpsteak), as well as new pieces such as Juliet Jenkin and Frances Marek’s More South African Deep Freezing – a play about time-travelling cannibalistic apartheid-era housewives that could be viewed either as gruesome but frivolous entertainment or as a trenchant satire of anachronistic white South Africans.

Oh, and don’t forget the Jazz Festival. Or art exhibitions at the Albany Museum and at Carinus Art School. Or SpiritFest, for soul food of a different kind. Or children’s theatre ...

Just don’t try and see everything; that way madness lies. And whatever you do, if it’s your first time in Grahamstown, make sure you take a map. When the Festival buzz is thick in the air, the heady atmosphere can be bewildering – and you’re likely to get lost.