The City of Cape Town, together with various partners, will host a Heritage Week programme aptly named the in_herit Festival from Monday, 17 to Monday, 24 September 2012, with numerous events in and around the Company’s Garden. Heritage Day is celebrated annually on 24 September.
The in_herit Festival’s programme includes film, music, readings, public dialogue and dance, and will take place at various venues in the city. Click here to download a PDF of the full programme.
“It is important for Capetonians to engage with what heritage means. Our goal is to build an Inclusive City, and celebrating our mutual heritage is an important part of this for both our City and our country. Heritage Day provides an opportunity for reflection on our past and for looking forward to our joint future. We look forward to engaging in dialogue on these issues and to celebrate our heritage,” said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Tourism, Events and Marketing, Councillor Grant Pascoe.
The City’s programme includes a panel discussion on the relevance of heritage to contemporary South Africa. Panellists include Josette Cole (Development Action Group), Jay Pather (Gordon Institute for the Performing and Creative Arts), Ayanda Hollow (Government Communication and Information Systems) and Zayd Minty (Arts and Culture – City of Cape Town).
A programme of performing arts and music will be on offer during Heritage Weekend in the Iziko Amphitheatre to showcase Cape Town’s diverse cultural heritage. Acts include Hilton Schilder, Jikileza and the Happy Feet Dance Project.
Lunchtime poetry sessions, where the spoken word will be merged with indigenous sounds, will be held on Thursday, 20 and Friday, 21 September at the South African National Library, as well as on Heritage Day itself at the Iziko Slave Lodge.
Entertainment for children during Heritage Weekend includes learning indigenous games at the City of Cape Town’s Come and Play initiative. There will also be a photo booth where, at a small cost, you can dress up in heritage costumes of your choice and have your photo taken.
Besides the City’s exciting programme, the Iziko South African Museum (also a partner) will offer a range of equally exciting events.
Iziko kicks of their Heritage programme with the Big Fish School of Digital Filmmaking and will host a mini-film festival at the TH Barry Lecture Theatre as well as Hollywood blockbusters: Night at the Museum (Part I) and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.
Other highlights of the week-long festival include guided tours of the ceramics exhibition; a Zulu exhibition; an exhibition at the Bo-Kaap Museum and surrounds; as well as a special “show ‘n tell” by the Director of the Social History Collection about numismatics (the study and collection of coins and medals).
Museum and cultural enthusiasts are encouraged to attend a public dialogue entitled “Celebrating our present by reflecting on our past sporting achievements”. The dialogue will involve the screening of two short films: Breathe Again by Kurt Orderson and Strong Bones by Izette Mostert.
The festivities will wrap up on Heritage Day with a family-friendly free concert and picnic on the lawns of the Company’s Garden. The Cape Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, poet Toni Stuart and Latin Jazz artists Hassan ’Adas and Friends will provide the entertainment.
St George’s Cathedral Crypt Memory and Witness Centre will launch “An African Tale to the Mother City” on Heritage Day– a celebration of the courage and vigour of women and men who, during the late 1970s and the 1980s, asserted the right of African families to live and work in Cape Town. Music will be provided by the Hout Bay Music Project Trust.
The Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA) will, through their Music in the City programme, present acclaimed flautist Liesl Scholtz. Other highlights on the GIPCA’s programme include a reading by Booker Prize winner, Kiran Desai, and short films by films4peace. These films were commissioned for World Peace Day and feature 21 artists’ visual interpretations of the subject of peace.
Creative Cape Town (also a partner) will end their Creative Week during Heritage weekend with exciting displays of how small city spaces can be used to activate small-scale events and activities – including buskers in the Company’s Garden and skateboarders.
Entry to all events is free, excluding entry to the Castle of Good Hope and the Planetarium, which is only free on 24 September.
Click here for the PDF version of the full programme.
