Arts Festival of Southern Africa

The Arts Festival of Southern Africa takes place annually. The Festival is there to encourage artists in any and every field of the arts. Artists are an invaluable part of our society. A nation in which its artists are suppressed - and there have been a great number - is a drab and unhappy nation. Based on the now famous Saint Hill® International Arts Festival, our Arts Festival has gone from strength to strength and is the highlight of the year for performers, artists, and audiences alike! The Festival is held to provide a positive, non threatening platform for all its performers.

Programmes! Programmes! Programmes!

Get your copy of the Arts Festival Schedule now! Click on the link: Arts Festival 2011 Schedule of Events. Choose your workshops! Workshop Programme 2011.

A beautiful printed programme is also on sale at the Festival - ask at reception.

Concerts 

There are three concerts, on Friday evening the 27th, Saturday evening the 28th, and Sunday evening the 29th May. The Arts Festival Gala Show takes place on the first evening, the 27th May. Click on the "Artists" link in the menu above for a preview of the exciting performers who will be participating in 2011's festival.

Arts Festival Gala Show

Eda Gonsalves, Sharon Frankenhauser and Nicky Downing  in a scene from 'Interlude with Abba.'

A scene from 2010's 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.'

This year 2011, the ARTS Festival Theatre Group are preparing a show called an "Interlude with Abba", based on the musical numbers from the movie, Mama Mia! with their entirely unique interpretation of the songs. The show is directed by Wendy Bowman, who has directed many shows in the past, including the Gala performances for the previous two Arts Festival in 2010 and 2009, which included excerpts of the musicals "Oliver," "Annie Get Your Gun" and "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers." 

This year they are presenting a very lively show brimful of song, dance, humour, fun and some very endearing moments to move the emotions. It is a show that will be loved by everyone. The cast includes sixteen very talented performers and nearly all of them are singing solo. This is an amazing achievement due to the fact that some have only increased their talents to reach this ability for the first time this year. The cast has been joined by the very talented Nicky Downing, who spent many years training in all forms of the Performing Arts. She has choreographed this entire show and has achieved amazing results with this entirely novice cast, many of whom have never danced before. She will also be delighting the audience herself in several solo numbers. The show lasts approximately one and a half hours and will be performed at the Gala Opening of the Arts Festival on Friday, 27th May 2011 at 7.00 p.m. in the newly renovated auditorium of the Church of Scientology in Kensington.

Workshops 

All day Saturday and Sunday, a series of 20 or more workshops are held by a number of well known professionals in their fields, who give freely of their time to host the workshops. These range from music, drumming, poetry, painting, how to become a disc jockey, making a short film, photography and a host of other skills that you probably wished you had tried but never got around to doing!

In the workshops you will be given the basics of the different art forms and an opportunity to practice them. Invaluable data on all art forms is also given at each workshop to make this a valuable, fun experience for even skilled artists. Another favourite is for people to switch arts, so that you may find a painter learning how to beat a drum and a photographer writing some poetry. A couple of groups of students from selected workshops are invited to perform on stage at one of the concerts.

Workshops that will be happening this year are: 

Drumming (Jean Viljoen), Band In A Box (Nico de Beer, Jean Viljoen), Beading (Shaleen Wohrnitz), Scrapbooking (Rhona Smit), Singing (John Fresk and Ryan Bysshe), How To Win A Grammy (Robin Hogarth), Card Making (Gillian Anderson), Art Of Make-up (Dawn Williams), Dip 'n Dye (Cindy Gosteli), Hip Hop Dancing (Duane Joaquim), Photography (Ryan Woodley), and so many more!

The philosophy behind the festival...

The rehabilitation of that art-ability of a culture is a tremendously valid undertaking, and will repay a culture a thousand times over for any effort made in that direction. A culture is only as great as its dreams and its dreams are dreamed by artists." - L. Ron Hubbard (Science of Survival, Book 2, Chapter 18)

This statement by world-renowned humanitarian and philosopher, L. Ron Hubbard, is the inspiration and philosophy behind the Arts Festival of Southern Africa, which has as its purposes:

• To rehabilitate the art-ability of people;
• To create a safe environment for Artists that is without criticism, invalidation or evaluation, and where Artists of all levels feel confident to create their art;
• To provide a platform where professional Artists or people who are considered to be experts in their field can deliver workshops to help, assist and train would-be Artists, thereby awakening the art-ability of people;
• To impart the technology in the field of Arts as contained in the works of L. Ron Hubbard. Our concerts are renowned for their friendly and welcoming atmosphere. Our audiences are there to see you win, not fail!

The arts can be tough, especially when lack of recognition or invalidation of your skills is used to put you down. Our Festival is intent on building up your confidence while having a great time, to the point where previous fears of performing or showing your art, fades away and you will finally know your own worth.