So much deliciousness: an overview of the 2019 National Arts Festival
The National Arts Festival of 2019 has more than 500 productions on the programme, including workshops, artist walkabouts, live art, music theatre, street performances and dance
Trying to predict what a festival will be like before having sampled it is a bit like peering through a restaurant window at a menu frozen behind glass. You have to go by what you’ve heard, trusting that the chefs will have access to the same ingredients and equal inspiration as they had the last time around. You hope the ambience is as good as you remembered it to be. What looks good also depends on the mood you’re in, what you’re hungry for: beauty, astonishment, political provocation. Cold hard facts, or mind-bending altered states. Laughter, fear, surprise or tears.
All of these are on offer at the 2019 National Arts Festival, a festival which acts as a barometer of our time and place. Nobesuthu Rayi (acting executive producer of the festival) says, “Artists are like the imbongis of our culture. Just as a chief might traditionally hear from the imbongi about the mood of the people, so our artists are now reading the mood of the nation. They are our interpreters and we nee...
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