Cape Town Gears Up for Cape Town Festival 2007

As promised, the first official details of the Cape Town Festival 2007 and some of the highlights and delights it will bring to the Mother City during its official run from March 3 to 24...

Read more about The Cape Town Festival 2008.

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The mother city's premier arts event - Cape Town Festival 2007 - is set to run from March 3 to 24, and more than 100 000 arts lovers are expected to attend the three-week long festival.

Highlights of the City's eighth annual arts and culture festival will include:

The Cape Town International Performing Arts Festival - a veritable feast of local and international drama, dance, and music productions - runs from 6 to 24 March at various venues including Artscape, Baxter, Intimate Theatre, Joseph Stone Auditorium, Distrix Cafe, Manenberg Jazz Cafe, On Broadway, and arts venues in Durbanville.

The Cape Town Street Festival - incorporating Night Vision - an exciting, day and night, multi-faceted and multi-dimensional arts event. Cape Town citizens will reclaim their city's streets from 12noon to midnight on March 3 in Long Street, Greenmarket Square, Bokaap and other city streets. For the first time this year the Street Festival will include day time to cater for families and the promotion of arts to youth, as well as creating entrepreneurial and business opportunities for traders by day. Some 30 000 festival-goers are expected to cash-in on the extraordinary energy of this multi-dimensional festival event which has been dubbed as South Africa's version of the Rio Carnival. Free to public.

The Youth Festival - aiming to create more awareness of the arts among the youth and promoting cultural understanding - runs from March 5 to 9 in the city's Company's Garden Precinct and Iziko Museum venues.

The Cape Town International Short Film Festival - nightly screenings of SA and African short films at the V&A Waterfront's Amphitheatre runs from March 5 to 12. Free to public.

Human Rights Day Concert - a feast of live entertainment and a celebration of the City's and South Africa's diversity with local and international musicians in concert on March 21 at the Company's Garden. Free to public.

The Visual Arts Festival - two exhibitions of the works of established artists - Ronald Harrison - whose Black Christ and Albert Luthuli Series will be showcased at St Georges's Cathedral, in the city, from March 6 to 24 and Tretchikoff, whose exhibition runs at Rust & Vrede in Durbanville from March 14 to 24. Free to public.

Jou Ma se Comedy - some of South Africa's funniest stand-up comedians, including well known names like Kurt Schoonraad and Mel Miller, will entertain locals and internationals from 13 to 24 March at Manenberg Jazz cafe, V&A Waterfont.

Local goes Vocal - the festival's platform for the mother tongue, where poets and musicians of all genres perform on one stage - runs at the Distrix Cafe, District Six, city on March 9, 10, 16, 17, 23 and 24.

The Hip Hop Festival - all the hottest hip-hop stars, both local and international, break dancers, spoken word and graffiti artists will perform in a concert at the City Hall on Friday March 23. A Hip Hop dance competition and workshops will happen at UCT's Sports Complex on Saturday March 24 and there will be a graffiti competition on Sunday March 25 at the Grassy Park Library.

The In Touch Community Festivals - These one-day community arts and culture festivals will take place in Hanover Park and Atlantis on February 10, Ocean View on February 17 and Durbanville on February 24. Free public events.


Molo says: "Cape Town loves to celebrate; read more about other festivities going on in this vibrant city throughout the year and subscribe to our informative newsletter to keep up with news, reviews and unique things to do in and around the Western Cape."

Find all information on the 2008 Cape Town Festival Events.