The National Arts Festival reported “solid and consistent”
support for the arts in a tough economic environment, as it announced its 2016
attendance and sales figures.
“We’ve seen a slight flattening of our numbers over last
year’s record-breaking attendance figures, with ticket sales and attendance at
Festival events totalling 227,524. While this is around 5% down on last year,
it exceeds sales from our 40th anniversary edition the previous year, in 2014.
The long-term trajectory is still good – the Festival has grown by 61% over the
last decade and continues to outstrip inflation in terms of how much money
audiences are prepared to spend on the arts. A sober year in the middle of a
ten-year party isn’t necessarily a bad thing!” Festival CEO Tony Lankester
said.
“That said, we were encouraged by the number of shows at the
Festival that reported sellout houses,” he continued. “Audiences were being a
lot more selective about how they spent their money this year. They sought out
quality on our ticketed programme, and they also gravitated toward some of the
many free offerings we staged,” Lankester said. The Festival reported an
increase in attendance at free events, including the popular SAfm Sundowner
shows and the Public Art performances.
31 productions on the Main programme enjoyed sales greater
than 80% of capacity. These included The
Inconvenience of Wings, Animal Farm, House of Truth, The Firebird, Blonde
Poison, Ruth First: 117 Days, Pieter-Dirk Uys’ The Echo of a Noise and the
Cape Dance Company’s double bill. Once-off performances by musicians AKA,
Caiphus Semenya, Ringo Madlingozi and The Kiffness were completely sold out, as
were Simphiwe Dana’s two concerts, and those by the East Cape Philharmonic and
the Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for Music, Avigail Bushakevitz.
“Our decision to include comedy on the Main programme a few years ago continues
to bear fruit, with the fourth Very Big
Comedy Show selling out, as well as Alan Committie’s smash Love Factually,” Festival CEO Tony
Lankester said.
Turning his attention to the National Lottery Fringe,
Lankester noted that there was an encouraging emergence of young producers
creating platforms and opportunities for artists. ExploSIV Productions, Siv
Ngesi’s production company, was the most successful producer on the Fringe with
four shows featuring among the Top 30 grossing on the Fringe. Other companies
with multiple entries on the same list include Andrew Simpson (three), Follow
Spot (two) and Pickledginger (two).
“Individual, experienced producers taking productions under
their wings and helping them navigate the tricky waters of a successful
Grahamstown run is the kind of ‘benevolent entrepreneurship’ we encourage. It
helps the artists and is just smart practice when it comes to finding – and
exploiting – economies of scale,” Lankester said.
Comedy continues to dominate the National Lottery Fringe,
accounting for 49% of ticket sales. Follow Spot production’s Bon Soir 1.5 topped the leaderboard of
top grossing productions, closely followed by the same company’s Big Boys the Third and the perennial Raiders franchise from Theatre for
Africa. Theatre (including musical theatre) still had a good showing, with
eight productions on the Top 30 list – including Artscape’s Ityala la Mawele, the return of Jemma
Kahn’s 2015 smash hit We Didn't Come to
Hell for the Croissants and Rob van Vuuren’s Silver Standard Bank Ovation
Award-winning Dangled. Three
productions enjoyed sold out runs - Pay
Back the Curry!, Big Boys the Third and bRENT - A Mobile Thriller
While the arts took centre stage this year, much of the
drama at the Festival played out against a backdrop of a water crisis which saw
taps run dry during the event, and many visitors commented on the potholes and
lack of maintenance evident around the City. Lankester has urged the
Municipality to develop a long-term plan for Grahamstown’s infrastructure. “Our
municipal officials responded brilliantly to the water crisis, doing their best
under difficult circumstances. But they were just papering over some more
serious cracks that our leadership now needs to address,” Lankester said. “We
can’t responsibly invite thousands of people to this city every year if we
can’t guarantee their comfort and health. It’s as simple as that.”
A 2013 economic impact study by Rhodes University put the
value of the contribution of the Festival to the Province at R340m, with R90m
of that being felt directly in Grahamstown. Lankester has challenged the
Municipality to protect the event’s future.
Top 30 grossing productions on the Fringe (alphabetical
order):
Comedy:
Apologies in Advance: Pickledginger
B!*ch Stole My Doek: Copy Dog
BeSpoke: TaylorMade Productions
Big Boys the Third: Follow Spot Productions
Bon Soir 1.5: Follow Spot Productions
Butlers and Broadway: Slick 'n Sleeve
Camp Carrawak: Lipsmac Productions
Comedy Masterclass: Macbob Productions
Don't Burn Your Sausage!: Pickledginger
Dr Stef's Sidesplitting Hypnosis: Stef
Gym and Tonic: Subtitled Memory of a Muscle: Tim Plewman
Hairy Potter and the Stoned Philosopher: Andrew Simpson Productions
Hashtag Lottering: Marc Lottering
I Came, I Taught, I Left: Dalin Oliver
Life: ExploSIV Productions
Pay Back the Curry!: ExploSIV Productions
Raiders Spaced Out The Moon Rock Musical: Theatre for Africa
The Best of Rob van Vuuren: ExploSIV Productions
The Oxford Imps: The Oxford Imps
Dance:
Chasing Shadows: Cape Academy of Performing Arts
Illusion:
Mind Over Magic: Brendon Peel
Stuart Lightbody's Sleepless Dreams: Stuart Lightbody
Music Theatre/Cabaret:
Ityala la Mawele: Artscape
Theatre:
A Man and a Dog: Here Manje
Dangled: ExploSIV Productions
Dracula: Andrew Simpson Productions
Salt: Wynne Bredenkamp
The Time of your Life: Andrew Simpson Productions
We Didn't Come to Hell for the Croissants: PopArt
Whistle Stop: Dark Laugh Theatre Company in association with Hijinks
Theatre
The National Arts Festival is supported by the National
Lotteries Commission, the Department of Arts and Culture, Eastern Cape
Provincial Government, M-Net and Standard Bank of South Africa.
(To link direct to the
NAF site click on the large banner that runs across the top of this blog)
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