In true festival style, the weekend saw a
full kaleidoscope of haphazard weather patterns – from baking heat, to gale
force winds, to pea-soup mist, biting cold and intermittent drizzle.
The festival started with a
super-successful Jongosi youth day on Friday – with a bespoke range of
youth-appropriate events, shows and exhibitions for the first time playing to
100% capacity.
Family-friendly fare was high on the
agenda, with the festival’s affiliation with youth theatre experts, Assitej
(International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People), who
offered a range of productions, workshop and a free children’s fantasy
play-area: The Power of Play. The
intention is to increase the involvement of Assitej next year to become an
integral part of the Jongosi youth day as well.
There was a range of carefully-curated
range of art exhibitions this year: portraits of festival participants by
photographer Harry Lock entitled Out of
Character; A Life Less Ordinary images of Nelson Mandela by Matthew
Willman; Africa Media Online which established a strong presence this year,
hosting both the World Press Photo Exhibition 2017 and nine presentations by
some of South Africa’s foremost documentary photographers and curators of
significant archives, under the banner of DocuFest Africa. There was a showcase
of the work of legendary Italian film director and screenwriter, Federico
Fellini and his focus on food; the Living Art Exhibition hosted by Grant Wood
and Tony Durrheim making art in-front of an audience.
Auction experts Strauss & Co were at
the festival for the first time, sharing tips with visitors about online buying
of art, art as investment, and doing on-site evaluations. They also hosted a
lecture on the life, work and times of J H Pierneef – which was so popular that
extra seats had to be bought into the lecture venue to accommodate the demand.
Strauss & Co are already putting their programme together for the festival
next year.
N3 Gateway is a collective of arts, crafts
and cultural activities to be found along the N3 from Pretoria to Durban,
Lesotho to the KZN Battlefields, co-ordinated by the N3 Gateway Tourism
Association. This was their first presence at Hilton, and they look forward to
coming back next year.
Festival Director, Sue Clarence commented:
“We are delighted that we had such a successful festival again, especially as
we were celebrating our 25th year of existence. I wish to extend a heartfelt
thank you firstly to the entire creative, management and technical team for
their dedication, good humour and hard work; and secondly to our sponsors and
partners who made the festival possible.
“We are delighted that the youth component
of the festival was so well received – having 100% attendance at Jongosi is
hugely affirming. We prioritise the need to grow the youth component of the
festival and have great ideas to extend this vision next year, and have
thoughts around extending the music programme for next year too.
“Among the highlights for me this year were
a range of curated exhibitions, and our relationship with the Baxter Theatre in
Cape Town. The Baxter Theatre had a strong presence this year with two major
productions directed by Lara Foot, Karoo
Moose and The Inconvenience of Wings,
both of which are multi-award winning productions and have just returned
triumphant from the Edinburgh Festival. We are hoping to duplicate this next
year and have two exciting productions in mind. Also new was the Bistro
restaurant experience which was hosted by Jackie Cameron which offered people
an alternative dining opportunity in an atmosphere more conducive to
conversation and quiet than the more boisterous main tent. And the excellent
support for the range of lectures and workshops on offer was most pleasing.
“Detailed stats and numbers are not yet
available – but due to the overall good weather the numbers of day trippers
increased from last year. The attendance for Saturday showed a 48% improvement
compared to last year (calculated by numbers of cars through the gate) and
ticket sales overall look very healthy” said Clarence.
The festival would not be possible without
the generous support of Hilton College, Tiso Black Star, Grindrod Bank, Black
Coffee, DWR, PWC, Bidvest Car Rental, Indwe Risk Services, Assitej South
Africa, Loud Crowd, Sappi, Redlands Hotel, Zultrans, KZN Dept of Arts &
Culture, BASA, Castle Lite, Maritzburg Sun, and Caxton.
Hilton Arts Festival 2018 will be held from
September 14 to 16.
For more information visit
http://www.hiltonfestival.co.za/ or like the Facebook page, Hilton Arts
Festival. Follow on Twitter @HiltonFest or download the free APP Hilton Arts
Festival for both Android and IOS.
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