| What: Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees When: September 28 to October 6, 2024 Where: Stellenbosch Bookings: Quicket Programme: https://woordfees.co.za/en/get-your-free-festival-guide-here/ Good to know: Info: For special attention, advice and guidance, visit the ticketing office at the Erfurthuis, 37 Ryneveld Street, Stellenbosch, 08:00 to 16:00, Monday to Friday Wheelchair access: With the exception of a few spaces, venues are wheelchair-friendly (except for the Dylan Lewis Sculpture Garden and the Neelsie Cinema 1). It is essential to make arrangements in advance for assistance with access and especially parking on 072 231 7073 Food and drink: Food stalls and cash bars are available at the majority of the venues. Picnic baskets and outside drinks are not allowed at outdoor concerts Cash-free festival: Woordfees is a cash-free festival. Pay with debit or credit card Shuttles: Park for free opposite Rhenish Girls’ High in Koch Street (entrance from Park Street) or at the Oude Libertas Amphitheatre. Use the festival shuttle from these car parks – it costs R20 per trip to all festival venues. Day tickets (R50) are also available, as well as a festival ticket (R180) that can be used for the full duration of the festival |
The Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees is happening from September 28 to October, 2024. The theme of the festival is “play”. It is an invitation to play. Note that the festival is cash-free, so take credit and debit cards. Woordfees is an Afrikaans Language festival but a lot of what is on, transcends language – with visual art and music for instance. Go to the website https://woordfees.co.za/en/get-your-free-festival-guide-here/ and navigate the 13 festival tabs, which include Theatre, Toyota Musical Festival, Classical Music, Visual Arts, EasyEquities Writers’ Festival, Kinderfees, Film Festival, Lifestyle, Comedy, WOW and Discourse. Read on for more about the festival and what is available on the theatre programme:
Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees 2024
The Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees takes place this year from September 28 to October, 2024. Get your tickets at Quicket. Undoubtedly a predominantly Afrikaans language festival, it is nonetheless an opportunity that English speakers should not let slip by. Irrespective of whether your Afrikaans is fluent, a little rickety, mostly made up of “Ja-nee” and “lekker” or completely non-existent you will find a myriad of things to do, see and experience at the Woordfees. You don’t need a phrase book or an interpreter. Just come along and join in a celebration of art, performance, music, food and enjoy a day or more of old-fashioned hospitality and “geselligheid*” (*sociability – but much more fun). You won’t be sorry.
Play is the theme
This year the theme of the festival is “play”. Consider Stellenbosch your playground for 10 days starting September 28. Get in touch with your inner child at the toy exhibition and the fun spaces of Zine-fees and Open Mic: Woord-Kans. Watch artists at play in their studios as more than 15 artists open their studios for visits and insights into their creative processes and spaces. Play with your food in the town that is fast becoming the culinary capital of the country with restaurants for every pocket, taste and adventurous spirit. Stellenbosch is also Barista central. Whatever your order, be it a medium black and bitter or a large mocha-caramel-oat-decaf-marula-latte, Stellenbosch abounds with smiling baristas who work magic with roasted beans. And then there are the wines…if you are over 18, of course.
October is springtime in the Boland. After a grey, miserable, wet winter, there is nothing more mood uplifting than spending a day or two in Stellenbosch. The oak trees are covered in neon green new leaf shoots, the azaleas are in full bloom, and the sky is (mostly) a clear cerulean blue bathing everything in the brightness of the promise of summer. Stroll down the charming streets, hang out at a curbside coffee shop, order a glass of bubbly at a wine bar, eat at one, or two, or five of the many eclectic restaurants. People watch – and because it is festival time, you will see a few famous faces from stage and television walking through town or meeting up with friends.
Theatre at the Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees
This year there are 36 productions, of which 13 debut at the festival.
Othello, the internationally awarded South African production starring Atandwa Kani, Albert Pretorius, Faniswa Yisa and many more stellar South African performers comes to the Woordfees for five performances in the Adam Small Auditorium. Reset in Namibia at the time of the Herero Uprising under Dutch colonisation, this thought-provoking rendition of one of Shakespeare’s more controversial plays has elicited standing ovations and much public debate. It is a theatrical experience that will leave you with much to think and talk about for a long time after you leave the theatre. https://woordfees.co.za/en/program/othello/
Sue Pam-Grant, writer, actress and visual artist, brings the production that won her a Fleur du Cap Award to Woordfees. Why do moths fly like crazy kcufs in the night? Is inspired by the world and life of Louise Bourgeois, one of the most fascinating and production visual artists of the 20th Century. This production is part performance, part theatre, part art installation, a creative tour de force directed by Fred Abrahamse. https://woordfees.co.za/en/program/why-do-moths-fly-like-crazy-fks-in-the-night/
The King of Broken Things: Whether you are five or one hundred and five this utterly charming and compelling performance will make your day. Cara Roberts creates the richly imagined world of a young boy, about 10 years old, who finds joy and meaning in the things that surround him when his life is messed up through bullying and abandonment. Richly conceived and achingly beautifully rendered this production is an ode to the value of the broken and the beauty that can be found in imperfection. Everyone will find something that deeply touches and honours those places where we often lock up our senses of loss and belonging and shows us the exquisite beauty that can be found in broken things. This production is conceived as theatre for children – but is in fact for everyone. https://woordfees.co.za/en/program/the-king-of-broken-things/
Theatre productions at Woordfees 2024 – reviews/interviews on TCR:
32 Lavender Close – written and directed by Andi Colombo
Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees: https://woordfees.co.za/en/program/32-lavender-close
TCR review: https://thecaperobyn.co.za/review-32-lavender-close-at-toyota-stellenbosch-woordfees-2024/
TCR interview: https://thecaperobyn.co.za/stage-interview-andi-colombo-talks-about-32-lavender-close-a-bathroomedy/
The Return of Elvis du Pisanie – with Ashley Dowds, written and directed by Paul Slabolepszy
Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees: https://woordfees.co.za/en/program/the-return-of-elvis-du-pisanie/
Why do Moths Fly Like Crazy Kcufs in the Night? – written and performed by Sue Pam-Grant
Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees: https://woordfees.co.za/en/program/why-do-moths-fly-like-crazy-fks-in-the-night
TCR review: https://thecaperobyn.co.za/review-living-for-art-why-do-moths-fly-like-crazy-fks-in-the-night/
Media release: https://thecaperobyn.co.za/preview-world-premiere-of-sue-pam-grants-moths-play-a-portrait-of-a-woman-as-artist
Isidlamlilo/The Fire Eater – directed by Neil Coppen
Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees: https://woordfees.co.za/en/program/isidlamlilo-the-fire-eater/
The King of Broken Things – performed by Cara Roberts and directed by Michael Taylor-Broderick
Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees: https://woordfees.co.za/en/program/the-king-of-broken-things
https://thecaperobyn.co.za/interview-empatheatre-south-africas-theatre-company-of-healing-changing-challenging-systems-and-igniting-vital-conversations/ Pic supplied.
✳ Sponsored content. Pics supplied.
