National arts festival’s popularity still on the increase

Some 22 countries were represented at the ever-popular festival.

The National Arts Festival in Grahamstown has reported year-on-year growth on attendance of 8.47%, with total attendance at Festival events in 2010 reaching 185 776.

Reporting the figures, Festival CEO Tony Lankester said that the Festival was pleased with attendance. "We've shown that our artists can hold their own at a time when audience attention is being fragmented and distraction levels are high. The FIFA World Cup is a massive event and South Africa is doing a great job getting behind it. The Festival has managed to draw on that national pride and stage work that delivered a ‘World Cup of the Arts'," he said.

The increase in attendance was driven largely, Lankester said, by a strong street theatre line-up, and over 50 exhibitions on both the Main and Fringe programme.

"Audiences were definitely looking for something different this year. They gravitated to some of the street theatre work that captured their attention," he said. The free Festival finale performance of Angeli e Demoni, for example, attracted about 2 000 audience members, making it one of the biggest Festival performances ever.

"Audiences were seeking out quality this year. They relied heavily on reputation and word of mouth in making their choices. This saw some productions dominate at the box office," Lankester said.

About 35 productions had sold-out performances, including London Road, Carmen, Judith Sephuma, Telling Lies, Dekaf, The Girl in the Yellow Dress, Inscrutable, Tree Boy, Karoo Moose, Hats, Cinema and Swan Lake.

"Audiences are being more careful when booking shows, and are opting for freshness, quality and innovation over tried-and-tested work that they may have already seen at previous festivals. While stand-up comedy is still strong on the Fringe, there was an increase in the level of buzz around theatre and physical theatre work, which also flowed through to the box office," he said.

This heightened level of discernment among audiences, combined with the dominance of a few exceptionally strong productions, and the renewed interest in highly creative and visually exciting outdoor work, saw Fringe ‘market share' during the Festival drop by about 10%.

"This isn't anything to be alarmed about," Lankester said. "It might just be a necessary correction on the back of sharp Fringe growth in recent years, as well as a response to the recession."

The introduction of the Standard Bank Ovation Awards this year added a new dimension to festivalgoers' experience, with 36 Fringe productions receiving the award during the course of the Festival. On the final day, 5 Gold Ovation, 8 Silver Ovation and two special Ovation awards were announced. "The awards definitely guided audiences towards certain productions," Lankester said.

Standard Bank Ovation Award winners were reflected in the list of top grossing shows on the Fringe. The biggest grossing comedy show was Raiders of the Lost Aardvark, while London Road topped the list for theatre, closely followed by Breed, and Stilted for physical theatre.

Apart from the media, some 22 countries were represented on the Festival programme and significant numbers of international visitors to the Eastern Cape came through to Grahamstown for short bursts during the Festival.

The 2011 event will run from 30 June - 9 July.

(Edited)