NAF 2020: The (virtual) revolution is here

Of all the things that will be different in a post Covid-19 world, the National Arts Festival is likely to be one of them.

Judging from the plans and approach to presenting a virtual festival this year, the virus and lockdown has brought about the revolution, for better or worse, that has been brewing on the fringes for years. The flip from the shoulder-rubbing in-your-face physicality of the annual arts celebration in Makhanda to a virtual screen-based festival in our homes is likely to leave its traces when we laugh and cry together again in 2021.

This year’s massive forced shift has come following a name change for the city of saints, plans (now a bit obsolete) to rewire the Fringe, and a new CEO who is not only jumping in the deep end but is having to do the high dive as well.

That new CEO is Monica Newton, who, together with her team, called the festival closure while we were still assimilating the repercussions of the President declaring a National State of Disaster on 15 March. The way Newton tells it, the NAF team had decided what they were going to do, and were taking a breath before announcing it. Then the Prez confirmed it. Newton’s version is more modest, but the team were on the money.

The news that 47 years in, the interlocking grid of creativity in Makhanda that is festival, will be virtual, was dropped on Tuesday afternoon, 17 March.

Newton says they were “looking at a range of different information suggesting there may need to be substantive changes to how South Africa needed to approach the virus”.

“We were looking at data from China and Italy and thinking of being 100 days from festival,” she says.

“At 100 days left, which is a critical point to make a decision, the question was: could we ask artists and visitor to make arrangements, put down money for travel and accommodation and production, without knowing whether or not the festival would go ahead?”

It was rhetorical.

Other options had been discussed. Postponement wasn’t feasible as the timetable of events in Makhanda – SciFest for one – means the festival wouldn’t work any other time of year. And canceling altogether would deprive artists of a platform just as all their upcoming gigs were canceled.

And no-one would benefit from cancellation. Not artists, not the community.

The only option left was to use the one channel to where we all sit, separated, through which we can engage together: the internet.

Which means the programme predicated on the audience being in together one place at one time, is all but thrown out the window.

“It’s pretty much a new programme,” says Newton from lockdown.

Some of the work may be able to be reimagined, and then there are commitments, such as the works by Standard Bank Young Artists.

At least two of these – Spoek Mathambo (Nthato Mokgata) for music and Jefferson Tshabalala for theatre – have already been challenging the boundaries of their mediums so there’s an expectation of sparks. Certainly there’s going to be some rubbing of heads, experimentation, failure, and new paths explored.

The Jazz programme presents its own challenges: “Jazz is about collaboration between artists, we need to find spaces where artists can get together and either live stream or be recorded”. With a bit of luck, this may be possible come June.

Artists have been challenged to reimagine their work for a virtual space. One with new rules, new parameters.

This also means the distinction between Fringe and Main has pretty much broken down. Simplistically, the Main is funded, with a budget from which to pay artists and creators, while artists on the Fringe are largely reliant on ticket sales.

But a virtual festival is new territory. The equivalent to tickets at the door is pay-per-view, and there is no knowing what the appetite is. Or what the appetite for a subscription model might be. And if subscription, how do you divvy that up among the artists?

Instead, the festival will support all productions on the programme, says Newton. Essentially everything is Main.

“We are using our budget to support the arts community. We want to support artists in all the ways we can.”

Options such as pay-per-view and subscriptions have been investigated, settling on a pay-per-day and festival package subscriptions for audiences. This can only help make the pot larger for artists.

The National Arts Festival website will be the main platform, and is undergoing a massive rejig, and she says Google ads are even a consideration, should they be able to generate enough revenue. YouTube also pays once a certain number of views are hit.

“It would be amazing if we went Gangnam Style (3.5B views),” she said.

As much as external income streams are being developed, funding is the framework it is built on, and discussions with funders are ongoing, as is “exploring opportunities for new sponsorship and maximising opportunities for artists to do this work”.

It’s all good if you have fibre and a functioning laptop. There are concerns about barriers to participation for both audiences and artists.

“Is this just a festival for the haves?” asks Newton.

It is unclear whether this question is rhetorical but there is definitely a sense that this should not be the case, which is why the team is also looking at packaging artists tool kits in an effort to make the circle bigger.

There are dreams of supplying equipment, and plans to create an online market for the traders who underpin the atmosphere of the Village Green.

There’s also the question of Makhanda’s crumbling infrastructure. It won’t have to groan under the strain of in-person visitors this year, but whether its electricity and IT structures stand up to the challenge is an open question.

Newton says the server is likely to be hosted on a major cloud computing service, and there’s high speed internet in the Monument, which is the hub.

NAF is also talking to Rhodes University (UCKAR?) who have “extensive resources” and are themselves moving into an online learning environment.

“It’s fundamental that we can access and sustain web traffic.”

Artists are synonymous with creativity, and necessity sparks action. Newton says NAF is looking forward to the possibilities, of hosting interesting work and reaching audiences that have never been reached before.

The World Fringe Network, of which NAF is a part, is sharing information, artists are sharing information, there is a cauldron of collaboration as everyone faces the same problem.

“We don’t really know what we’re going into. We don’t know when we’ll be on the other side of this major international crisis. And we need arts more than ever to get us through.”

One thing Newton is sure of is the commitment to keeping the festival in Makhanda and returning to hosting it in its known physical format in which we can natter to each other in box office queues and hug and high-five and sob on each others shoulders as soon as possible.

But this year it’s a new game that will have repercussions for future formats. The door is open to jump in and play.