Cape festival entertains

The overall feedback from the arts and culture industries can be summarised in the words of the Cape Town Festival Chairperson Ryland Fisher: "Our business approach which we adopted in 2003 has significantly grown the festival into a true platform for cultural diversity and artistic expression for our local and national artists. Festival goers enjoyed diverse arts entertainment events during March 2005 and we intend to further grow audiences in 2006 through sustained and innovative marketing."

Ganief says: "We are looking towards March 2006 to take what we have learnt from our research findings to build on our successes of 2005. The independent research conducted by Events Research International has been invaluable in showing us our strengths, weaknesses and potential for the way forward."

One of the fundamental changes introduced by the Festival CEO in 2005 was the extension in the length of the festival: "One of the primary objectives of the CT Festival is to create as many viable platforms and income opportunities for our local artists to perform during the festival. This year more than 2 600 people participated to make the festival possible and approximately 1 700 were individual artists and crafters.

"The BEE percentage was in excess of 80% and the festival can seriously be considered as a BEE driver within the local arts and culture landscape."

The Night Vision event, a regular highlight of the festival, attracted almost 31 000 people into the CBD. The Cape Town Children's festival attracted 31 000 people in a two week period and firmly established itself as the largest children's arts and culture festival in the country.

Festival 2005 saw the introduction of new brands and one of the most successful ones were a comedy festival aptly named ' Jou Ma se Comedy' held at Manenberg's Jazz Café and hosted by Cape Town comedian Kurt Schoonraad. Shows on the last two days of the five-day run sold out completely.

Patron of the Festival, Premier Ebrahim Rasool, says: "The Cape Town Festival is a powerful tool in our efforts to create our Province as a Home for All. It represents a wonderful opportunity for all the City's stakeholders, both public and private, to address our cultural diversity, to find common ground through the arts and to establish a platform of reconciliation and renewed civic commitment

"The arts were instrumental in both challenging Apartheid and giving substance to the vision of Freedom, they should continue to be a catalyst for finding innovative means of highlighting our social problems and creating the necessary awareness to fight those factors which continues to divide us."

Nomaindia Mfeketo, Honourable Mayor for the City of Cape Town, says: "Plans are well underway to build the CT Festival into a serious national and global arts entertainment player by 2010. The festival should play a pivotal role in showcasing our local and national artists to the world in 2010 and assist the city in building local competency through its annual In Touch Community Festivals and various training workshops within disadvantaged communities."