National Arts Festival Remains Steady in Tough Economic Climate

The National Arts Festival reported “solid and consistent” support for the arts in a tough economic environment, as it announced its 2016 attendance and sales figures today.

“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 40^th 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!” Festival CEO Tony Lankester said.

“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.

31 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,” Festival CEO Tony Lankester said.

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.

Comedy continues to dominate the National Lottery Fringe, accounting for 49% of ticket sales. Follow Spot production’s Bon Soir 1.5 topped the leaderboard of top grossing productions, closely followed by the same company’s Big Boys the Third and the perennial Raiders franchise from Theatre for Africa. Theatre (including musical theatre) still had a good showing, with eight productions on the Top 30 list – including Artscape’s Ityala la Mawele, the return of Jemma Kahn’s 2015 smash hit We Didn't Come to Hell for the Croissants and Rob van Vuuren’s Silver Standard Bank Ovation Award-winning Dangled. Three productions enjoyed sold out runs - Pay Back the Curry!, Big Boys the Third and bRENT - A Mobile Thriller

While the arts took centre stage this year, much of the drama at the Festival played out against a backdrop of a water crisis which saw taps run dry during the event, and many visitors commented on the potholes and lack of maintenance evident around the City. Lankester has urged the Municipality to develop a long-term plan for Grahamstown’s infrastructure. “Our municipal officials responded brilliantly to the water crisis, doing their best under difficult circumstances. But they were just papering over some more serious cracks that our leadership now needs to address,” Lankester said. “We can’t responsibly invite thousands of people to this city every year if we can’t guarantee their comfort and health. It’s as simple as that.”

A 2013 economic impact study by Rhodes University put the value of the contribution of the Festival to the Province at R340m, with R90m of that being felt directly in Grahamstown. Lankester has challenged the Municipality to protect the event’s future.

Top 30 grossing productions on the Fringe (alphabetical order):

Title:	Genre:	Company:
A Man and a Dog	Theatre	Here Manje
Apologies in Advance	Comedy	Pickledginger
B!*ch Stole My Doek	Comedy	Copy Dog
BeSpoke	Comedy	TaylorMade Productions
Big Boys the Third	Comedy	Follow Spot Productions
Bon Soir 1.5	Comedy	Follow Spot Productions
Butlers and Broadway	Comedy	Slick 'n Sleeve
Camp Carrawak	Comedy	Lipsmac Productions
Chasing Shadows	Dance	Cape Academy of Performing Arts
Comedy Masterclass	Comedy	Macbob Productions
Dangled	Theatre	ExploSIV Productions
Don't Burn Your Sausage!	Comedy	Pickledginger
Dr Stef's Sidesplitting Hypnosis	Comedy	Stef
Dracula	Theatre	Andrew Simpson Productions
Gym and Tonic: Subtitled Memory of a Muscle	Comedy	Tim Plewman
Hairy Potter and the Stoned Philosopher	Comedy	Andrew Simpson Productions
Hashtag Lottering	Comedy	Marc Lottering
I Came, I Taught, I Left	Comedy	Dalin Oliver
Ityala la Mawele	Music Theatre / Cabaret	Artscape
Life	Comedy	ExploSIV Productions
Mind Over Magic	Illusion	Brendon Peel
Pay Back the Curry!	Comedy	ExploSIV Productions
Raiders Spaced Out The Moon Rock Musical	Comedy	Theatre for Africa
Salt	Theatre	Wynne Bredenkamp
Stuart Lightbody's Sleepless Dreams	Illusion	Stuart Lightbody
The Best of Rob van Vuuren	Comedy	ExploSIV Productions
The Oxford Imps	Comedy	The Oxford Imps
The Time of your Life	Theatre	Andrew Simpson Productions
We Didn't Come to Hell for the Croissants	Theatre	PopArt
Whistle Stop	Theatre	Dark Laugh Theatre Company in association with Hijinks Theatre

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National Arts Festival Remains Steady in Tough Economic Climate

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