National Arts Festival 2025

Rondo Mpiti-Spies performed her first of five shows of So Over The Rainbow at 20:30 on Thursday 26 June, the first day of the 2025 National Arts Festival in Makhanda.  The next day, Erika Breytenbach performed her first of seven I Can Buy Myself Flowers shows despite electricity issues which forced the cancellation of previous shows in the venue.  Makhanda is a town in decline and it impacts significantly on the festival experience (lack of water, electricity blackouts, potholes) as well as on the income for creatives when their shows have to be cancelled.  How much longer the festival survives is anyone's guess with declining funding, declining audiences and the increasing expense of participating with scant rewards for artists.  We were fortunate as Rondo raised R60 000 from the National Arts Council to cover the costs of participation in the Festival.