A critical analysis of the geographies of Afrikaans arts festivals in South Africa

Abstract

The tourism products in pre-democracy South Africa had been fairly limited and included only one arts festival, the National Arts Festival held annually in Makhanda since 1974. This tourism sector has seen sizeable growth since 1994 including both national and international tourists. Festivals have proliferated in recent years with South Africa presenting more than one thousand (1000) festivals every year. However, a thorough examination of published literature has shown that there is a shortage of research regarding the spatiality and interconnection between these festivals, and specifically arts festivals. In contrast to most local festival research which had been quantitative in design, this investigation followed a qualitative research design. After having completed ethically guided field work at five major Afrikaans arts festivals (Aardklop, KKNK, Innibos, Vrystaat Arts Festival and Woordfees), the interviews were transcribed, coded and analysed. The original contribution to knowledge lies in the analysis and description of the various geographies exhibited by stakeholders contributing to Afrikaans arts festivals in South Africa. The spatialities of the arts festivals were most prominently observed in the travel behaviour of artists and stall holders. These individuals designed their routes to suit their unique travel needs and could be divided into two broad categories; the travelling merchant / artist and the touch-base merchant / artist. Valuable insights were gained from attendee travel behaviour. It was found that arts festivals draw attendees from their home province as well as from the Gauteng Province; but with the new finding that attendees from the south are less inclined to travel to attend festivals than their counterparts from the north. New insights were gained regarding management, stakeholder and attendee perceptions on various topics including festival spaces, festival impacts, cultural dimensions, audience development, attendee experiences, spaces of exclusivity and festival ranking. By providing findings on the topics mentioned here, this investigation contributes an improved understanding of the Afrikaans arts festival phenomenon in South Africa and provides a valuable pre-COVID-19 baseline for future research, in particular the life of these festivals after COVID-19.