PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - Outdoor spaces take centre stage at the Plett Arts Festival this year as sunshine becomes the spotlight, the forest becomes the gallery, the ocean becomes the microphone, and the beach becomes the paintbrush in the 2021 edition of this festival. It is scheduled to take place from 1 to 9 October.
"We have always felt inspired by our natural surroundings and the partnership between art and nature," says festival director Cindy Wilson-Trollip.
"Given the current state of travel, we wanted to offer festival experiences that were both unexpected and appealing to the 2021 traveller. Thus, the festival is offering a platter of immersive art experiences and performances in nature alongside our traditional exhibitions and pop-ups."
Wilson-Trollip described the events on this year's programme, which was postponed from July to October due to lockdown regulations, as "delightfully different". The newly added "musical marine safari" with saxophone blues and Afrojazz by Marcellus Welman is a good example. Mike Bhayibhile and Lisa Engelbrecht will once again appear on the programme and bring their classical roots to the roots of the forest with access via a Robbie Leggat sculpture walkway at Bronze Fields. The Keurbooms ravine is set to play theatre to popular classics by Minx on violin on a ferry cruise down the river.
Another new addition comes from Garden Route Walking Festival pioneer, Galeo Saintz, who will take on an unforgettable walking adventure and poetry recital.
It would likely be as inspiring as the views are breathtaking. "Poetry has a big presence on the programme this year, with introspective and inspirational works by Galeo, Ntombi Wonci and Was Lemeul," Wilson-Trollip said.
Art lovers can take a tour of galleries and pop-up galleries throughout town during the festival, with music and artists in attendance on celebratory opening nights. This year includes familiar Arts Festival favourites Plett SunSets, Plett Twilight Meander, and Plett Food & Film for another round of evening concerts. For those wanting to try their hand at art, Barrington's will be hosting workshops on drawing and upcycling old clothes for children, in addition to inspiring installation exhibitions and artists in residence.
Following two successful site specific Land Art installations in 2012 and 2013, Land Art will return to Plettenberg Bay this festival with six sites for pop-up artworks at the following venues: Piesang River mouth, Central Beach, Hobie Beach, Wedge Beach and the Peninsula, Lookout Peninsula and Lookout Beach.
"In true Land Art fashion, these artworks are made from the natural environment and are on display only for as long as nature (the tide, the winds, the waves) allows."
This ties in with the recent unveiling of Plett's recycling project, a whale sculpture created by local artist Derek Saul from recycled materials that functions as an enormous receptacle for plastics. With the slogan "Feed me, not the sea", it aims to encourage beachgoers to collect plastic waste and drop it into the whale's mouth.
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