barns.blog

Well, the festival has finally wound to an end. Today I saw my final two performances, which included the Festival Finale – The Festival Gala Concert.

But first. This morning I followed up brunch with Ten Bush a play about witchcraft and deceit in a small African village, the village of Ten Bush. It was an excellent performance, with its limited set design and raw stage feel of the Box Theatre. It did have its slightly explicit moments, and left one feeling slightly odd, but was really made by the voices. I am going to be hearing “Ten Buuush” (not that this does it any justice) for ages to come.

This was followed, finally, by Richard Cock’s Gala Concert, which included The Orchestra, some Opera, some Sax, and even Audience participation. It was also a tribute to the Festival CEO who has retired after being at the helm of the festival for many years.

The performance was a superb mix of classical and modern music, all chosen because of some significance to the year 2008. Unlike the performance yesterday, Richard Cock continuously addressed the audience and the whole occasion was less formal. (Indeed he was an a bright yellow shirt!) The grand finale was The 1812 Overture which made use of the audience and paper bags to create the cannons. An effect which worked quite well. For an encore, they performed (almost to my horror) the song NAFG – or National Arts Festival, Grahamstown. Richard Cock claimed that this had been commissioned for the festival, but it turned out to be the YMCA.

Quite appropriately, the sun was just setting over the horizon as we left the monument. A builtiful red and orange orb to place an air of finality on what was a wonderful celebration of culture.