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Not even the chill from the coldest night of the year could keep audiences away from Siya Makuzeni’s opening night performance at this year’s National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.
On Friday, the 2016 Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz award winner had eager audiences queuing up around the block in temperatures just hovering above the mercury, hoping to get their hands on this year’s hottest ticket.
For the lucky few who made it inside, Makuzeni debuted the Siya Makuzeni Sextet – her live band, which featured percussionist Ayanda Sikade and pianist Thandi Ntuli.
For just less than an hour, the group performed, for the first time, an entirely original set of music with a ballad inspired by the heritage of 1950s jazz classics.
Makuzeni also performed a number of tracks featuring her signature live recording, then live-looping style performances.
Also bringing the crowds so far at this year’s festival, which opened officially on Thursday, was The Firebird – the Handspring Puppet Company’s first collaboration with choreographer Jay Pather, set to the epic score of Russian composer Igor Stravinsky.
The production’s epic puppets – some of the largest and most ambitious yet for the puppet company – wowed old and young alike.
However, some critics weren’t impressed. A Daily Telegraph reporter was overheard saying that the troupe “likes to play with their toys too much”.
This week, festival CEO Tony Lankester announced that the department of arts and culture had committed three more years of funding to the festival – a much-needed R17 million boost
The National Lotteries Commission has also just announced an additional contribution of R10 million to the festival.
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