Cape Town: Getting to the 'Art of the Matter' in March

The buzz-word is fusion and a visual spectacle of dance, music and theatre will explore the tapestry of cultural fusions and multinational collaborations on stages throughout the city. The stages are set for the Company's Garden and Greenmarket Square, and arts and heritage venues in and around the city centre.

Night Vision, centred in Cape Town's Long Street, will be offering a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional late-night urban art party experience, on Friday 11 March. Surrounding art galleries, quaint venues and street performers, will also animate the evening with the sounds and sights of cutting-edge art and live entertainment in myriad forms.

Human Rights Day, on 21 March, will host the Eyona Human Rights Festival in the Company's Garden, with the sounds of guitar maestro Jimmy Dludlu and songstress, Zama Jobe, sharing the 'emerging artists' stage with national music icons. The Company's Garden also plays host to the largest children's arts and culture festival in the country, offering a feast of activities and entertainment for kids of all ages.

The V&A Waterfront, will once again screen the CT International Short Film Festival from 9 to 26 March, in partnership with Sithengi, creators of the CT International Cinema Festival, so that movie-buffs can view a wide selection of local and international films screened daily between 20h00 to 22h00 at the open-air amphitheatre... for free.

The comedy set will be taken up at Manenbergs Jazz Cafè, this year's host to the Cape Town Comedy Festival, and will see top local comic Kurt Schoonraad joined by some of Cape Town's best comedians, between 16 to 19 March 2005.

Culture Talks will take place at the Centre for the Book and the Cape Town Holocaust Centre (14 to 18 March) where industry leaders will share their perspective on controversial cultural and arts issues, in a vibrant exchange of ideas.

Waxing enthusiastic about this years' festival happenings, CEO Yusuf Ganief says, "The Festival is now in its sixth year and we are reaping the benefits of the success of last year's festival which attracted over 140 000 people. We've hit on a winning recipe as an arts-based cultural festival city. This year's theme 'Ubuntu: Celebrating our Cultural roots', is a thread that weaves through all festival content."

Partnerships have been concluded with top local venues, such as Artscape, Baxter, Oude Libertas, Spier, Distrix Café, On Broadway, Obz Café, the Independent Armchair Theatre and the V&A Waterfront, and a key partnership, for this year has been formed with the organizers of the Argus Cycle Tour, inviting all participating cyclists to join in the festival entertainment.

The existing festival has grown out of the One City Many Cultures initiative, launched in 1999 by Ryland Fisher, during his tenure as editor of the Cape Times, and the aim continues to be to achieve cultural, religious and racial tolerance, through a celebration of culture and creativity.

The jam-packed festival programme will be available on the website www.capetownfestival.co.za or buy the March issue of The Big Issue.