The National Arts Festival takes place in Grahamstown from the 4th to 13th July, 2014.
We have a group of 17 going to ‘hit-the-shows’ from the 6th to 11th July.
Today, Saturday 3rd May we held a meeting in the Cream Lounge at the Kelvin Grove Club in Newlands to discuss the Programme and select which performances we should book for. Unfortunately, we only had “soft copies” of the Programme to work with, which is not all that easy!
The full Programme was released electronically on Sunday 27th April and a good few of our group had done their homework and arrived with a list of their preferences. We had 4 laptops set up to aid selection and after a brief overview of Festival and how it works (by Brian), serious conversations were heard in little groups throughout the room. “Which show should we see on the first day” – “Carol what time will we be in Grahamstown” – “Hey is this the Big Boys from last time we were at Festival” – “Hey we wanted to see Lira and she’s performing on the last day of Festival – can’t we stay longer?”
Two and a half hours later the completed booking forms started to trickle in; then there was indicision when word got out as to what others had booked for.
All that remains now is for us to correlate the more than 180 bookings into a workable order so that our group booking can be submitted to the Festival Box Office for processing. Public bookings open on the 9th (we are Art Bucks members’ and are able to submit our booking a week ahead of public bookings). Most years when the public bookings open, the good shows are sold out within a very short period!
This year it is the 40th anniversary of the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown and the Programme highlights some amazing show. “Too much to see, so little time!”.
Top international acts as well as the wealth of talent that South Africa has to offer, is so very exciting and augurs well for a fabulous time in Grahamstown. Roll on the 5th July!
