Organisers buoyed by NAF success
Relocation of Village Green, Creative Digital programme drove attendance up 4.5% on last year, says Lankester
This year’s National Arts Festival (Naf) saw a 4.5% improvement in overall attendance numbers after experiencing a drastic drop of 10.2% in 2017.
New projects and initiatives put into place for this 44th festival are believed to have contributed to this slight increase.
Last year the overall attendance for the festival went down from 225,634 in 2016 to 202,643. The drop saw the organisers putting into place a number of measures to ensure that the festival continues to grow despite tough economic times.
“We’re happy that we managed to show some growth in what continues to be a tough economic climate, and even happier that the work of our artists found favour with both audiences and critics,” said Festival CEO Tony Lankester as the festival reported overall attendance of 209,677.Two key initiatives are credited with providing some fresh energy to the iconic event – the launch of the Creativate Digital Arts Festival and the move of the Standard Bank Village Green craft market to a new home.
But it was also the carefully curated programme, together with the wide choice offered across the main and fringe platforms that drove audiences into the city’s theatres.
The festival’s executive producer, Ashraf Johaardien, said “box office figures are by no means a comprehensive measure when it comes to the role, purpose – or indeed story – of the National Arts Festival, but they are nevertheless an important key indicator of performance in a given year”.
“The biggest selling productions on the overall main programme were, once again, the flagship music shows, including Amanda Black, Suzanne Vega and Samthing Soweto.
“We also saw strong support for festival staples – the Gala Concert, which was performed by the Eastern Cape Philharmonic Orchestra this year and the return to the Festival of Cape Town City Ballet after a four-year absence with Robin van Wyk’s classical reworking of Romeo and Juliet,” he said.Other than the ballet, the biggest-selling dance production on the main was the Cape Dance Company’s Interplay, while Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for Theatre Jemma Kahn’s The Borrow Pit led the box office in her genre.
Stephen Cohen’s Put Your Heart Under Your Feet, and UJ Arts and Culture’s African Gothic by Reza de Wet (directed by Alby Michaels) also emerged as audience favourites in the results of a post-festival audience survey, as did Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for Jazz Thandi Ntuli.
Lankester noted the continuing success and growth of the curated venue model, where independent producers select and schedule work to stage in a single venue.
“Eight of the top 10 grossing productions were presented in curated venues,” he noted, with Cape-based production company Followspot Productions’ venue being responsible for five of those, including all of the top three productions and the festival’s biggest grossing Fringe show, Caliente.
“Followspot have got the formula right, consistently delivering productions that hit the right notes with audiences,” Lankester said.
Applications for those wanting their work to be featured in the 2019 NAF main programme are open until August 15.
For more information, go to www.nationalartsfestival.co.za or send an e-mail proposals@nationalartsfestival.co.za..
Would you like to comment on this article?
Register (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
This article is free to read if you register or sign in.
If you have already registered or subscribed, please sign in to continue.
Questions or problems? Email helpdesk@dispatchlive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00.