Grahamstown does a damn fine job

It used to be a perennial one but I haven't heard this suggestion for ages - the National Festival is outgrowing Grahamstown. Or at least, the Standard Bank Jazz Festival is outgrowing Grahamstown, as it was presented to me last night.

It came at a packed out session by trombonist and virtuoso player of sea-shells Steve Turre and a bunch of other brilliant musicians. 

"I think it's time to have a debate about whether Grahamstown can still accommodate the festival," said a mate, looking across the packed hall.

That suggestion has been raised in different ways at different times - sometimes for political reasons, at other times for purely commercial interests, maybe because we've had a particularly arduous trek from the big city to this cold former garrison town, and, as an artist, we really do feel that our creative talents and the audiences appreciation of them may find better expression in another venue.

Yes, of course it gets a bit tight, and you may have to walk across town , squash yourself into nooks and crannies to see shows, and sometimes you have to stand in long queues for tickets or food, and there's no indoor venue big enough for the arts and crafts markets.

But this city offers itself once a year to the country and bits of the world. And it does a damn fine job!

 Where else in South Africa can you experience a mid-morning set by some of the best jazz exponents from0 Europe, the Americas and Africa (on the hill at DSG), walk down into the town centre for stand up comic (Riaad Moosa, Siv Ngesi or Boet en Swaer) then go across the university campus for a recital in the chapel of Benjamin Britten's choral songs (the Chanticleer Singers with Young Artist Award Winner Runette Botha).

The total walking time is 25 minutes, leaving aside a stop at the Village Green or a plethora of venue coffee bars for a quick snack (good food at a fraction of what you will pay anywhere else in the country), let alone the world.

And that handful of performances is among more than 150 productions running from 9am to 11.30pm - on one day. Multiply by 11 days and you get an idea of the tapestry which is woven each year by the festival.

That tapestry would be incomplete in any other setting. So, whatever may motivate a desire to take the festival out of Grahamstown, my view is its meant to be here. - RAY HARTLE