The 2011 National Arts Festival takes place between 30 June and 10 July 2011 in Grahamstown and is Africa’s largest and most colourful cultural event which offers a choice of the very best of both indigenous and imported talent. Over 50,000 people make their way to Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape to enjoy the arts, crafts and entertainment this great festival puts on.
The National Arts Festival delivers excellence by encouraging innovation and development in the arts by providing a platform for both established and emerging South African artists and creating opportunities for collaborations with international artists and building new audiences.
Halls become theatres, parks and sport fields become flea markets, streets are packed with people and every available room in the city is booked. The festival showcases more than 500 shows from theatre to dance, opera to cabaret, fine art to craft art, classical music to jazz, poetry readings to lectures, every art form imaginable is represented. There will be the usual dance parties, old-fashioned banquets, craft fairs, cyber cafes, carnivals, performers and walking tours.