CueBlog 09

Out of CueBlog HQ in the Africa Media Matrix, towards High Street and eventually onto the Village Green, the atmosphere gradually changes. From a calm, holidaying campus to an increasingly vibrant and festive experience where locals set up stalls selling home-made merchandise, prepare gas cookers for culinary delights and get to work at selling show tickets.

Village Green
Local street kids paint their faces white and stand frozen to the spot, hoping for spare change for their ‘performances’. The usual guitar playing one-man show from outside the High Street pharmacy has moved onto a small patch of grass at Village Green, ready to strum away the next ten days for captivated Festival visitors. And local performers try their luck at drawing the crowds. Indeed, the Festival is, for many locals, a chance to earn some additional income off the masses of flocking art and culture consumers. There are however also a significant number of locals who are visitors of the Festival themselves.


Local mom, Martina Becka, is here for the first three days of the Fest: “It’s a dynamic that doesn’t exist at any other time, it’s completely different.” However, “we’re off to Germany to escape cold Grahamstown.” Before they jet off though, her and her family are looking forward to enjoying the vibrancy that comes to town along with the Festival. Her daughter, Paula (8) loved Betti & the Yeti, an UBOM! production that they went to see this morning, “It was really fun and it made me laugh.”

Enjoy the buzz
Local business woman, Dale Heim, is hoping that for the first time in four years she’ll get to see a show. “Festival always means work, work and more work, but this year we have more staff so hopefully I’ll get to enjoy the buzz, and the jazz of course, for a change.”

Daniella Austin lives just outside town and Fest is a regular for her. “It’s on my yearly schedule,” she says, hoping that this year will not disappoint. “I’m most looking forward to going out – the clubs and the DJs promise to make Fest awesome.”

Two Grade 10 learners from Grahamstown school, Kingswood College, Alisha Gathercole and Danica Kruger, are looking forward to getting out, seeing some shows and doing some mid-term shopping on the Village Green!

Pics: Siobhan Louw