More to the Festival than arts, crafts, theatre, music and tie-dyed hippies.

There is a lot more to the National Arts Festival than arts, crafts, theatre, music and tie-dyed hippies.

The 11-day arts extravaganza, which starts today in Grahamstown, also features serious mini-festivals offering everything from spiritual connections to cutting-edge “big issues” and the written word.

Festival CEO Tony Lankester said yesterday the unique selling point of the annual event was offering a range of activities that were both wide and deep.

He said Think!Fest, Spirit Fest and Word Fest – and the introduction of post-performance discussions with audiences of certain theatre productions that include the cast, writers and directors of the piece – had become vital components.

“These are an important dimension for those wanting to engage more deeply and wanting to learn more about creating the work as much as the work itself.”

According to Lankester, events like Think!Fest created a space to tackle big current issues.

“Part of the thinking is that the arts don’t exist in a vacuum. In South Africa, particularly, context is vital, and Think!Fest gives our audiences the opportunity to delve into and understand the context our artists operate in.”

He said it was also where people could celebrate and immerse themselves in literature, book launches and discussions.

Think!Fest convener and Rhodes University journalism professor Anthea Garman told the Dispatch that “big issues” that had grabbed the public’s imagination over the past year would be tackled.

These include student hashtag protests, the cost of higher education, gender-based violence, being white, xenophobia, the role of the National Arts Festival, making journalism and decriminalising dagga.

She said tackling burning issue at an arts festival was important.

“I think of talking as an art. I also think the combination of aesthetic and political is an important one and very often artists raise pertinent political questions in performance, which are then ideal to unpack through discussion.”

The jam-packed programme features round-table and panel discussions, book launches and author conversations, art talks and walkabouts by people known to be at the cutting edge of their craft.

Award-winning photographer James Oatway, who captured gruesome pictures for the Sunday Times of Mozambican street hawker Emmanuel Sithole being stabbed to death last year during xenophobic violence, said yesterday he was looking forward to being involved with Think!Fest.

“It’s a dignified platform to engage in informed discussions and interrogate debate and discuss important issues,” he said.

The chilling photos feature in an exhibition of his work called Enemies and Friends.

According to Oatway, he was at the receiving end of social media criticism after the photos were published, mostly from people who saw them but did not read the story or know the context of the pictures.

“It was mostly emotional, knee-jerk reactions to the pictures and it unfortunately got quite nasty and personal. I’m looking forward to putting my images into context and explaining my experiences in detail,” he said. — davidm@dispatch.co.za