National Arts Festival 2025

Rondo Mpiti-Spies performed So Over The Rainbow at 20:30 on Thursday 26 June, the first day of the 2025 Festival in Dicks at the Monument.  The following day, Erika Breytenbach performed I Can Buy Myself Flowers, the first of seven shows in a venue where the some of the previous shows had been cancelled due to electricity blackouts.  Makhanda is a town in decline - and has been for a while - largely due to poor governance and corruption.    It is a matter of time before the Festival shuts down or relocates elsewhere as the challenges of the town impact adversely on the festival experience of the audience, and on the income of the artists.