Grahamstown Arts Festival

For those of you that know very little about the Nation Arts Festival in Grahamstown, South Africa I am here to guide you through the wonderful journey.

Lets start with some history of Grahamstown

Grahamstown was founded in 1812 as a military outpost by Lieutenant-Colonel John Graham as part of an effort to secure the eastern frontier of British influence in the then Cape Colony against the Xhosa, whose lands lay just to the east.

Grahamstown is a city of about 70,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about 110 kilometres northeast of Port Elizabeth and 130 kilometres southwest of East London. Grahamstown is the largest town in the Makana Local Municipality, and the seat of the municipal council. It also hosts Rhodes University, the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court, and a diocese of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa and 6 South African Infantry Battalion.

National Arts Festival

Organised by the National Arts Festival team, Africa's largest and most colourful cultural event offers a choice of the very best of both indigenous and imported talent.

Every year for 11 days Grahamstown's population doubles, as people flock to the city for a feast of arts, crafts and sheer entertainment. Every hall or large room becomes a theatre, parks and sport fields become flea markets, normally quiet streets have to be managed by an army of temporary traffic wardens, and every available bed in the city is booked. The festival offers more than 600 shows from opera, cabaret, drama and jazz to stand-up comics and folk music.

Please feel free to follow my week long journey of the Grahamstown Arts festival starting from tomorrow where I will post stories of my journey along with pictures and videos of some of the amazing live acts I will have the privilege of seeing.

Stay tuned!! Follow@jordanduplooy

Refernces: www.grahamstown.co.za wikipedia google images