Future Festivals South Africa: Possibilities for the Age of Covid-19
Lead Research Organisation:
King's College London
Department Name: Culture Media and Creative Industries
Abstract
Future Festivals South Africa: Possibilities for the Age of Covid-19 is an international collaborative project developed by King's College London (UK) and Rhodes University (South Africa). It aims to investigate the impact of Covid-19 on arts festivals in South Africa (SA), building a new knowledge base - and a collaborative network - to enable them to survive these challenging times, and to thrive in the future. In doing so, the project is partnering with some of the country's most important festivals and will be seeking to develop a broad and inclusive network of stakeholders. The project brings together an interdisciplinary team of researchers including cultural economists, cultural policy researchers and creative labour specialists. Data collection has been carefully designed to integrate mixed-methods and to involve a wide range of research participants including festival organisers, creative producers, and festival audiences. Qualitative interviews and focus groups will be conducted with festival organisers and creative producers. Quantitative data will be collected with festivals' audiences, via online surveys, exploring their patterns of cultural consumption and participation (before and since the outbreak of Covid-19). Finally, a community engagement project will be undertaken - Letters, Videos and Pictures from the Future - to gather creative contributions from stakeholders on their vision of what South African festivals should be like in the years ahead. The project aims to provide an initial understanding of the how Covid-19 has affected arts festivals in South Africa, but also to enable new ideas for future: including new business models, and new approaches to audiences and participation.
Organisations
Publications
Comunian Roberta
(2023)
Future Festivals South Africa: Lessons from the Age of COVID-19: A policy report: 2023
| Title | Creative output: Letters from the future |
| Description | Artists blk banaana (Duduetsang Lamola) and Francois Knoetze have created an interactive 360 world including public contributions of imaginary spaces, places and people which could form part of the National Arts Festival ten years from now. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | Some festival organisers found the futuring process allowed for a reflective space that was valuable in imagining and exploring possible future scenarios for their festivals, in ways not usually available to them in undertaking planning and future-thinking. This was especially "refreshing" as festival organisers had been "in survival mode" over the previous two years, dealing with the impacts of COVID-19, and so had limited space to consider the future beyond the immediate future (NAF). In some cases, our research participants also emphasised the importance of a "continued conversation" beyond this research project, with many voices involved in imagining what the future could or should look like for the festival, and for South Africa more broadly (NAF). |
| URL | https://seekbeak.com/v/35ze4nP91An |
| Title | Creative output: Letters from the future (Song) |
| Description | With Innibos, in addition to members of the festival management team, letters were also completed by entrants in the festival's song writing competition, feeding into the competition itself. The winning song was then professionally recorded and released as part of the festival activities, and can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxgST69P3Hs. |
| Type Of Art | Composition/Score |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | With Innibos, in addition to members of the festival management team, letters were also completed by entrants in the festival's song writing competition, feeding into the competition itself. The winning song was then professionally recorded and released as part of the festival activities, and can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxgST69P3Hs. |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxgST69P3Hs |
| Description | Though these were challenging times for festivals in South Africa, with almost half of those occurring in 2019 cancelling in 2020, there have also been opportunities for some festivals to innovate through the pandemic. There are four key findings of the project: Festivals have been heavily affected by COVID-19 but have also evolved because of it. They have taken new roles, knowledge and leadership in response to COVID-19. Festivals have acted as a cornerstone of the creative economy during COVID-19, supporting artists and communities. Festivals have experimented and tested new online means of delivery and engagement but have not found a defined business model associated with it. While moving online, festivals remain anchored in specific localities and loyal to audiences and place-based communities. There are also a number of policy implications that stem from the impacts of COVID-19 on the festival landscape as well as the evolution that has occurred in the sector as a response to the pandemic. Public sector funders may need to shift their focus from the old view, where their responsibility ended with making the grant and receiving the close-out report, to a much more collaborative, networked approach. Providing platforms for networking, training, and mentoring is likely to become increasingly important and valuable in the ongoing COVID recovery period. Public and private sector funders could consider facilitating such events alongside the direct funding provided to individual organisers. Supporting festivals looking for ways to continue reaching offline creatives and audiences should also be a focus of public funding. Festivals need to be recognised as key enablers of the development of creative economies. Policy needs to recognise their strategic role - and to provide support not only for festivals to deliver their own artistic programmes, but also to be able to grow, network and innovate for the benefit of the overall sector. |
| Exploitation Route | The key findings have policy implications that have been shared with policy makers and festival organisers in South Africa. We will follow up to see if / how these might be taken forward. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | https://www.future-festivals.org/ |
| Description | The project's key findings have been discussed with SACO, the South Africa Cultural Observatory and have been reflected on by many of the festival organisers involved. Festival managers reported using the research project interim findings and final findings to reflect on the way they were developing their festival during Covid-19. Furthermore, a key policy recommendation is for cultural policy to recognise more broadly the role that festivals play in the creative economy of South Africa. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2021 |
| Sector | Creative Economy,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal,Policy & public services |
| Description | Future Festivals South Africa: Lessons form the Age of COVID-19 Policy Report Launch |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The online seminar presents the results of "Future Festivals South Africa" an 18-month Arts and Humanities Research Council research project (AHRC, grant number AH/P005950/1). The seminar will launch the final policy report of the project, with the discussion of its key findings and implications for policy. The project included extensive fieldwork and support for festival organisations during different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa between November 2020 and March 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.kcl.ac.uk/events/future-festivals-south-africa-lessons-from-the-age-of-covid-19 |
| Description | Online academic conference presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Prof Jen Snowball will talk at the 8th edition of DUT's Faculty of Arts and Design Digital Festival (DigiFest08) that will be held as a virtual event from 19th to 21st October 2021. This event, themed UNMASKED, will promote collaborative practices (creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship) in art, design, and technology. She will contribute to the panel The new possibilities of digital festivals due to the pandemic |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022 |
| Description | Online academic conference presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Dr Roberta Comunian and Mr Delon Tarentaal are contributing to the Association for Cultural Economics International online seminar series this Tuesday 26 October, 2021 / 16:00 Central European Time during a Mini-symposium on 'Cultural festivals in an era of C19: New Research Agendas and Data Sources' Chair: Prof Jen Snowball, Rhodes University, South Africa Panellists: Prof Ian Woodward, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark Dr Roberta Comunian, King's College, London, United Kingdom Mr Delon Tarentaal, Rhodes University, South Africa |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |