Festival

Festival

TO BE WRITTEN*

See also Carnival

Festivals in South Africa

As shown in the entry above, the festival (in its various forms) has long been a venue for theatrical performance(s) throughout the world, and in South Africa.

Some are cultural (e.g. **), some both cultural and political (e.g. **, ** , Voortrekker Festival (1938), Huguenot Festival (1939), Van Riebeeck Festival (1952), ***)

Arts festivals

Among the better known are the National Arts Festival (NAF) (better known as the Grahamstown Festival), Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK), Aardklop, the Woordfees,

Cultural-historical and political festivals and pageants

The Voortrekker Festival (1938), Huguenot Festival (1939), Van Riebeeck Festival (1952), Union Festival (1960), Republic Festival (19**)

Radical political festivals

Radical political festivals occurred too, e.g. the African National Theatre (ANT) festival of short plays (1941), ** Gradually other regional, celebaratory festivals came along such as the Van der Stel Fees, the Stellenbosch Fees, the Durban Tattoo, the Cape Town Arts Festival, **.

Educational and cultural festivals

Others have been educational and cultural, including the amateur and schools drama festivals orgnised over tmany years by FATSSA, the ATKV, and various educational bodies and departments (e.g. the High School Drama Festival in Cape Town). See Administration Drama Festival, Administrator's Cup Competition, Also the Barney Simon Young Directors and Writers Festival at the Market Theatre. Time of the Writer or International Writer’s Festival, Durban

The evolution of the post-Apartheid festival circuit

However, beginning with the renowned the Grahamstown Festival, or to give it its formal name, the National Arts Festival (NAF) , the late 20th century saw the development of a wide-spread festival circuit in this country has been a particularly prominent and immensely influential feature of the theatre in the period after 1994, as state support for the arts drained away. They include other English festivals like the Hilton Festival, the Arts Alive Festival, Franschoek Literary Festival, and **, Afrikaans festivals (the original Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees and its associated Afrikaans festivals - Aardklop, Walvis Fees, Oester Fees, Burger-Suidoosterfees, Volksbladfees, Afrikaanse Woordfees, Inniebos, ** ), and

Many of the new festivals arising later in the 20th century and escalating there have been product and produce-oriented festivals (the Hibiscus festival, the Flower Festival in Darling, and numerous food and beverages festivals celebrating wine, brandy, mampoer, cheese, olives, cherries, potatoes, and so on.)

South African festivals abroad

There are a number of one-off and longer term international festivals such as** in Amsterdam, UKkasie in London, ** in Canada, Afrovibes Festival, Europe and South Africa. and so on.

See further the individual entries for the various festivals in Part Three, Section 3 (Venues) and Section 4 (Plays and Performances). (See

Sources

Hauptfleisch, 1997 and 2004;

Kruger, 1999,

Temple Hauptfleisch, Shulamith Lev-Aladgem, Jacqueline Martin, Willmar Sauter and Henri Schoenmakers, 2007

Go to South African Theatre/Bibliography

Return to

Return to South African Theatre Terminology and Thematic Entries

Return to The ESAT Entries

Return to Main Page