What will the National Arts Festival be like in 2030?

Future Festivals South Africa is working with the National Arts Festival as a research partner to ask about the future of festivals in South Africa.

Artists blk banaana (Duduetsang Lamola) and Francois Knoetze have created an interactive 360 world including public contributions of imaginary spaces, places and people which could form part of the National Arts Festival ten years from now.

This interactive world acts as a portal for the further imagining of the National Arts Festival ten years from now. We welcome new contributions towards this project in any format, for example: a photograph or scan of small collages created from home, a letter, an idea, a poem, a voice note or a sound recording.

Be free and imaginative with your contributions!

Explore the portal and contribute to the imagining the National Arts Festival 2030

The Buyel’Ekhaya Pan African Music Festival started in 2009 and is held annually in mid-December in East London, Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality in the Eastern Cape province.
In this report, the Future Festival South  Africa team  explores  how the festival has changed and adapted due to the Covid-19 pandemic  , writing    on Buyel’Ekhaya’s 2020 virtual festival edition. 
In 2020 Buyel’Ekhaya was televised.  Though there were a number of challenges including having to navigate a change into producing a festival for television,  the viewership figures of just over 400 000 people show that Buyel’Ekhaya successfully made the jump into the virtual festival format.  Buyel’Ekhaya have positioned themselves well for the future with a number of business models open to them which include live and virtual elements. 

To read the full report, please email us at [email protected] or complete the contact form.