The market, which hosts about 300 traders, crafters, food
vendors and artists during the course of the 11-day Festival, will move off
Rhodes University’s campus to the playing fields of Victoria Girls High School
in Beaufort Street.
“The move is the logical next step in the evolution of the
Market and its offering – we want to create a convivial village atmosphere that
gives our visitors plenty of space and nooks and crannies to explore,” Festival
CEO Tony Lankester said. “We’ve spent the last six months thinking through the
change and looking at different approaches – and now we have a year to bring
those plans to life. Instead of two or three large marquees, we’re going to
explore different ways of hosting our market: multiple smaller tents, different
trading zones, a food court, performance stages, family zone, beer tent and
exhibitions. This new space lends itself to some innovative design and layout
that we’re looking forward to exploring.”
The new Village Green will cover an area of just over 20,000m2.
This will be its third move since its inception as a small craft market inside
the Grahamstown City Hall. In 1989 it moved to Fiddlers’ Green in the City,
adjacent to the Bowling Club and, in 2009, it made a move onto Rhodes campus.
At that time the change was driven by the need to expand and resulted in a near
doubling of the trading space, although some criticized the move as taking the
market away from the city centre and further from the residents of
Grahamstown’s townships.
“We heard those criticisms and, while the move was necessary
at the time to ensure the growth and sustainability of the market, we now feel
the time is right to establish a fresh market in a new home. Victoria Girls
High School is a long-time supporter of the Festival and has been the home to
hundreds of performances and exhibitions over the years. By putting our flagship
market on their campus we are creating a great opportunity to refresh and
revitalize what we offer festivalgoers,” Lankester said.
Victoria Girls High School headmaster Warren Schmidt said
that the School Governing Body had carefully considered the proposal, and were
delighted at the prospect of hosting the new Market. “There will have to be
lots of careful planning to make it a smooth transition, but we’re really
looking forward to having the Market on our campus,” he said.
Rhodes University’s Executive Director for Infrastructure,
Operations & Finance, Dr Iain L’Ange, wished the Village Green well with
its new site: “We are pleased that we have been able to assist the National
Arts Festival with a site for the Village Green market for a number of years,
and we recognize the need for a new model. The University wishes all
stakeholders in the new venture everything of the best.”
The Village Green was established in 1989 as a means for
local service organisations to raise funds to support their community projects
and, over the past few decades, hundreds of thousands of rands has been
invested in dozens of projects and initiatives.
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