Cape Town Arts Festival celebrates 100 years of Langa with Langa Vibes

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Langa Vibes was born out of the Creative Community Connectors Project - a PESP (Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme) run by the CDI (Craft and Design Institute) in partnership with the CTAF (Cape Town Arts Festival). It started in October 2022 and is shaped through a focus on the role of culture in community building and as a tool for identifying opportunities for innovation. The project provides social employment for creative practitioners in Cape Town to underserved communities, giving unemployed artists an opportunity earn an income, be productive while playing a role in community building.

“The Creative Community Connectors Project really brought hope for us as artists here in Langa because during COVID19 we suffered a lot, a lot of us had to sell our instruments to make ends meet – this project really brought back that pride and confidence in the arts in our community”, said Henry Jeane of Langa Creatives Collective

Cape Town Arts Festival, known for hosting Community Arts Festivals since 2004 has been offering training and mentorship classes to Langa Vibes collective with events management, marketing, and fundraising workshops since Feb 2023.

“We believe that job creation for artists goes hand in hand with developing extra skills to survive the ever-changing economic climate. Our experience of managing major events has become part of our community arts empowerment strategy by offering structured training and mentorship programmes in events management. This project will allow the Langa Vibes team to offer ongoing events planning and management services to their own community as well as to offer their services to other communities and festivals.”, commented Yusuf Ganief, CEO for CTAF..

The festival is supported by Western Cape Cultural Affairs and Sport, SAHRC Shine Project and Ariva Arts Foundation’s EMPLOI (Education Mentorship Programmes for Leadership, Ownership and innovation).

The festival which is free and promises to be a day of celebrating Langa community with music, arts, local food and craft vendors.

For more, go to https://capetownfestival.org.za/