Chairman of espAfrika Rayhaan Survé emphasised the festival’s commitment to inclusivity, stating their goal is to perpetuate the “family” atmosphere and make jazz a universally enjoyable and celebratory space. Survé highlighted the festival’s rich history, noting its power to unite individuals from diverse locations and backgrounds.
He specifically addressed the desire to dismantle the notion of jazz being solely for “the elites”, striving instead to ensure the genre is “accessible and friendly to all”.
Co-director of the festival Georgia Jones outlined the intentional strategy behind curating the line-up, which aimed to blend international appeal with a celebration of local and emerging artists.
Jones described the line-up as “wonderful in terms of demographics”, emphasising the significant presence of female artists, a point of importance given the organising team is “98.5% female.”
The curation process was deliberate, starting with securing a headlining act like Jacob Collier and then complementing it with supporting local performers. The festival will also host a conference for four selected artists next Thursday, scheduled from 10am to 12pm.
Cape Town International Jazz Festival co-director Georgia Jones.
Survé said the festival has contributed massively to the county’s revenue.
“We have employed over 3,200 people [each year], which is quite significant,” he said. He said while there was a direct contribution to those people’s livelihoods, the Festival hoped to do even more for the City of Cape Town.
With regards to safety, Jones assured festival-goers that there more than adequate measures in place to ensure the safety of the attendees.
“We have three security companies on board and we will use the ‘No-Pass-Out’ policy; if you exit there’s no re-entering the venue to mitigate additional risk,” she said, adding the organising team has enjoyed fruitful engagement with the SA Police Service. “We also have plenty of ushers to assist as well.”
Tickets are available exclusively through authorised vendors, Ticketmaster and Loot. Jones stressed the importance of purchasing tickets only from these authorised vendors.
The NFP is walking tall following the reaffirmation of the current leadership by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) as legitimate.Last week, the party announced that it had uncovered a plot to prevent it from contesting the upcoming local government elections by removing the current leadership as the recognised structure.In last week's statement, the party’s Acting Secretary-General, Sunset Xaba, had said that the plot was hatched by 15 disgruntled […]
