Festival offers platform for show to go on — online

Despite the National Arts Festival (NAF) having drawn to a close and the Fringe platform planning to do the same at the end of August, the show must go on — online, that is.

Having moved the festival online during 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, the NAF has opted to continue to offer artists the platform to host work throughout the remainder of 2021.

However, this work would not be affiliated to the festival programme and productions had to market their own work, NAF chair Monica Newton said. 

“The online space affords artists much greater freedom of access than a real life staged work — they quite literally have a global market, but the trade-off is that there is even more competition for attention online,” Newton said.

“Artists need to invest in their marketing skills, think of ways to stand out in a sea of content and grow their own community of fans.”  

During the live festival, the Fringe space is used to debut new and experimental work, explore interesting collaborations or just “test the boards” as a new actor, playwright, artist, musician or dancer. 

Fringe manager Zikhona Monaheng said there were no registration fees for the online shows and artists took home 90% of the proceeds from their ticket sales.

“Artists, and particularly young artists, are really showing up in the space, blending elements of film, live concert and documentary formats as they explore and experiment with presenting work online and develop a sense of possibility for digital,” Monaheng said.

NAF’s long-term partner, Standard Bank, also stepped in this year to offer the public a chance to send messages of support to the artists on the Fringe, through the Bank of Dreams.

The creative digital portal translates messages into money for the artists on the Fringe and the public still has time to leave their message.   

Both the National Arts Festival Fringe Live and The Bank of Dreams end on August 31.     

The content is available here.

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