Voorkamerfest 2004
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Press Release
First of its kind Voorkamerfest (Frontroom-Festival) rocks the town of Darling
The West-Coast town of Darling will be hosting an arts/entertainment festival called the Voorkamerfest, which will take place in the front rooms of the local community’s homes in the last weekend of September 2004. This type of festival is a first of its kind for South Africa.
These are the artists doing stand-up comedy, drama, storytelling, jazz,
opera, mime, motown, puppets and magic
From:
Canada - William Sutton
Algeria - Hakim
UK - Mark Kingsford
Suriname - Denise Jannah
Netherlands - Bert Plagman / Kristel Zweers / Jasper Valstar/ Anne van Veen Germany - Wolfgang Martini
FROM SA:
Dizu and Lungiswa Plaatjies / Giempie Vardien / Roshina Ratnam & Chad Abrahams / Lizz Meiring / Amrain Ismail-Essop / Bruce Little and Zayne
Upton/ Beverley Rinkwest and Ralston vd Schyff / Graham Weir / Rolanda Marais / Jeanette le Sueur and Anel Hamersma / Riana Alfreds / Godfrey Johnson / Mavis Smallberg, Lee-Anne Davids and Khadija Heeger/ Jacques le Sueur
(Left - Lizz Meiring)
Feedback
Hi Kotie,
Dit was absoluut 'n plesier om by die voorkamerfest op te tree. Dit was definitief een van my hoogtepunte vir die jaar en ek hoop dat ons weer volgende jaar deel kan wees van die fees.
Dit is rerig 'n wonderlike konsep wat definitief ondersteun moet word. Miskien dalk op 'n ander tyd in die jaar en ook wyer geadverteer moet word?
Baie dankie!
Beverly Rinkwest
Dear Kotie
I'm pleased to hear that you had such a good response to the Voorkamerfest. It was a wonderful experience and definitely one that should be repeated. Thank you for all your efforts. Keep well. Look forward to hearing from you. Kind regards, Nicolette
A few letters received from artists who took part in 2004 Voorkamerfest:
Great to hear from you! It was indeed a great pleasure and a privilege to bring our work to the first ever Voorkamerfest, and I look forward hugely to bringing more work to future festivals ... I am definitely keen to get some opera on the schedule for next year!
In terms of feedback from Sarah and myself, I think our major suggestion for next year is that there are staggered starting times for some of the different routes, so that the artists get a chance to see some of the other artist’s work. With such a wide and interesting variety of performers it seemed a pity that we couldn’t see some complete shows by our colleagues ...
Both Sarah and I were extremely moved by the generosity of the theatre managers, impressed by the efficiency with which the festival was run, and touched by the remarkable sense of community which the festival seemed to engender in Darling – and I hope not just for that long weekend! Here’s to hoping that in the future many more communities can be brought together by art and performance!
Best wishes,
Matthew W
thanx so much for the note, it's truly appreciated. Wot to say about the festival? It was one of a kind. the spirit amongst the performers, and the audience was so special. I felt so lucky to be a part of it, and would love to participate again next year.
the only negative thing i can say is kind of positive in itself. We stayed at Auberge in Yzerfontein, which was beautiful and marvelous, but because it was so far away, it made our lives quite difficult: if you have an hour off between your shows and dinner, it's not really enough time to go home and have a shower and a lie down or whatever. I think alot of us felt quite jealous of the performers who stayed in town, even though Auberge was beautiful.
So many amazing connections were made at this festival: between the performers, between the towns folk, and there were such beautiful examples of people reaching out to one another. My favourite was from one of the performers from holland. The security at his venue informed him of a play he had, or rather, had in his head, that he felt compelled to exhibit to all the people coming to their venue. after a whole process he did perform his piece, and the story goes like this.
a guy comes home from work on a friday and wants to go for a drink with his friends. however, he can't find his shirt for going out, his wife has hidden it, and he ends up being stranded at home. so simple and pure, and this guy found a platform for it!
hope to hear from you again next year.
anel hamersma
Dear all,
I just wanted to thank everyone who was involved in making the fest a wonderful success. I have been walking around with a warm fuzzy feeling all day, and will never get over the deication, generosity & sheer warmth of humanity that i experienced this weekend. I am already spreading the word 4 nxt year!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Lotsof love
Roshina Ratnam
We went on Saturday evening and it was absolutely brilliant - especially the 3 women poets and Bruce J Little. Congratulations to whoever thought this one up and to the organisers. Can't wait until next
year!
Malcolm Jones |