Unusually warm start to "11days of Amazing"

Cold weather is as much as part of the ambience of the National Arts Festival as the glut of posters that festoon almost every surface in Grahamstown. It is for this reason that while festivalgoers, or “festinos” as they are known colloquially, complain about the inclement weather, they also gripe about its absence.

It is the cold weather that forces arts lovers to gather around indoor fires. This is where heated discussions of the merits of a new dance work or experimental film take place over hot chocolate or warm beverages with an alcoholic kick – said to be the only reliable bulwark against the cold winds that usually sweep through this small Eastern Cape town during the winter months.

So it was with a degree of disappointment that festivalgoers arrived in Grahamstown on Thursday to kick-start what the organisers have dubbed “11 days of Amazing” to be greeted by sunny skies. It was too late to dump their knitted hats and scarves – and no doubt sales of these festival staples will be in a slump in the Village Green, a makeshift fair that caters to all the needs of the influx of thousands of culture vultures who descend on the town.

For the street performers, who include young children who dress up, paint their faces white and attempt to pose like immovable sculptures, the warmer weather was welcome, though the colder weather does assist their frozen gestures. It could improve their modest income: their passing audience won’t be in such a rush to get indoors.

No matter where performers are stationed, in the Rhodes Theatre – the only posh venue – or a modest school hall or the street, success and failure here hangs on numbers. Last year the festival pulled 185 776 visitors according to figures released at the close. Tony Lankester, festival CEO, will announce ticket sales from the first weekend of the festival on Monday and is optimistic. “From the figures I have seen so far we will exceed that number despite the fact that petrol prices have gone up and there has been an economic slump.”

The festival does not rely on ticket sales to survive, observes Lankester. “Of the R28 million it costs to put on the festival, only R2m is generated from tickets.”

The National Lottery Distribution Fund and corporate sponsorship from the likes of Standard Bank largely cover the balance.

Tracking ticket sales have, therefore, only become a way of gauging how relevant the festival is to the public. Patterns suggest that it is established names that pull punters. Mango Groove’s concert next weekend has already sold out and Athol Fugard’s Blue Iris, which premiered on Thursday, was also a top seller. Of course the proof is in the pudding.

Blue Iris opened to a packed house but not a single person rose from their seat at the conclusion of the play to join others in a standing ovation. It was “vintage” Fugard, as one local publication observed, but perhaps too “vintage” – it read like a play from another era. That this play was a flop came as a surprise; with Janice Honeyman directing and a number of top-notch theatre folk attached to it, it seemed like a sure thing.

Ironically, when Brett Bailey’s Exhibit A, a modern-day rendition of a human parade from the 1800s that represents atrocities committed against Africans from the colonial era, toured Europe, audiences couldn’t get enough of it. It is a controversial show, particularly in the wake of The Spear debacle. However, in Grahamstown, they have struggled to fill the eight daily shows, according to organisers. This proves, once again, that responses to the festival programme are as unpredictable as the weather.

No one could have predicated that Afternoon of a Foehn, a French production that is part of the French/SA season, would be such a hit that the organisers had to add extra shows to cater for the demand. There could be more surprises before the festival ends next Sunday. By then the weather may have turned too.

Sunday Independent