The National Arts Festival is reporting "solid and consistent” support for the arts in a tough economic environment.
Figures for the 42nd edition of the National Arts Festival were released Wednesday.
“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!” said Festival CEO Tony Lankester.
“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.
Thirty-one 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,” said Lankester.
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.
(Pic: Supplied)
