Posted on by

South African art festivals and artists under financial strain

South African performing artists are struggling to recover the money they have lost due to widespread cancellations of events during the national lockdown, according to Barry Snow, chairman of the Theatre Benevolent Fund. 

“In essence, that money is lost, because [artists] have no chance of recouping it as, obviously, they can’t perform,” said Snow. 

For many artists festivals are their only source of income for the year, said Cornelia Faasen, CEO of the National Afrikaans Theatre Initiative (NATI) and coordinator of the Festival Forum. The importance of festivals cannot be underestimated, she said. 

“The financial impact on the towns and districts where these destination festivals  – like the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK), Aardklop and the National Arts Festival, are held  – is enormous,” said Faasen.

According to Faasen the estimated financial injection of a festival like the KKNK on the Klein Karoo area is roughly R60 million per year.

Not only do festivals offer temporary jobs, but locals, guest houses and hotels also benefit tremendously from festival periods, said Hugo Theart, artistic director of KKNK.  

“It is very important to find solutions for the industry. But it needs to be structured in a way where the platform assists in generating an income for those freelancers involved. Innovative ideas and a new way of thinking is necessary,” Theart said, adding that long-term and sustainable options are needed.

Organisations already assisting artists

According to Faasen, the Festival Forum has put a number of support measures in place to support its six producing festivals (KKNK, Woordfees, Free State Arts Festival, Aardklop, Innibos and Suidoosterfees). 

One of these measures is to start raising funds for relevant organisations, companies and individuals, in order to assist festivals with producing new works so that artists can directly benefit from this.

“We have created a masterplan for the year, for all the festivals, to determine where and when productions should be staged. Productions that could not debut at the KKNK this year will have other opportunities [to debut] throughout the year,” Faasen explained. 

The South African Filmmakers Relief Fund was created to provide some assistance to workers of the industry, by Lara Hattingh, Stellenbosch University alumni and performing artist.

safrfund-03 Artists

The South African Filmmakers Relief Fund poster. PHOTO: Lara Hattingh

“The fund is not solely for actors [and] familiar faces. It’s for organisations that rent out cameras, lighting and sound equipment, and people that edit films. It is truly for all contributing aspects in a production, not necessarily [only] the actors and writers. We want to reach all participants involved in the production of film,” Hattingh said. 

In addition to community based efforts, the minister of sports, arts and culture, Nathi Mthethwa, announced on 25 March, that a relief fund of R150 million has been made available to assist artists, athletes, technical personnel and core teams that support them, to minimize the economic impact of the national lockdown.

 

– Lezanne Steenkamp, Anke Nothnagel & Kirthana Pillay