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2010 Festival Wrap-Up

The FLF team is delighted that so many readers and writers from across the South African spectrum came to Franschhoek to celebrate books for a fourth year over the weekend 14 – 16 May. The sun shone after a showery start, the venues were mostly full, the authors were in fine voice, debates raged, deep conversations erupted into laughter, and the word ruled for three days in the village pleasantly augmented by its now-legendary hospitality.
 
Over the three days of the Festival, we ran 42 main events. Side events included three literary dinners, the Wine Writer’s Prize presentation, the primary school Spelling Bee, the FLF Poetry Prize-winners presentation, an Off-the-Wall open mic poetry session, four book launches and two showings of the Youth Affair’s cabaret Maid in Franschhoek. There was also a Sunday Times Storybook event for a thousand primary school children in the Groendal Community Centre where each child received a gift from one of the Storybook sponsors, Engen.
               
Also happening concurrent with the FLF were six music events organised by Christopher Duigan of Classical Music Revival, the annual Board meeting of the African Arts Initiative – which contributed a number of writers to the events and held an Africa Party on Saturday evening – and a two-day seminar at Bridge House to train editors, conducted by the Professional Editors’ Group.
               
In an unexpected way, the FLF’s vibrant success is a pointer to a broader vision for Franschhoek. According to a visitor quoted in The Month in June: “The Literary Festival isn’t just about books … It’s about culture. This is a Franschhoek Culture Weekend, with books, music and art. It’s wonderful, isn’t it?”
               
There is a strong case for more cultural and creative events during winter to keep the village busy: intensive week-long creative writing or art courses, invited craftspeople teaching skills such as bookbinding, calligraphy, print-making, painting restoration, cabinet-making, embroidery, fine sewing – the possibilities are endless, specially if supported by winter-rate accommodation costs. Franschhoek could become a place where skills are passed on and beautiful things created, offering a wider variety of quality goods for sale and greatly enhancing its fine-living reputation.

Ticket sales
This year, 4 311 tickets were pre-sold via Webtickets and an estimated 190 tickets at the Town Hall or venue doors, and there were 6 – 10 press seats per event, plus complimentaries for guests, writers and their partners, giving a total of just over 4 500 seats. 16 events were sold out before the Festival began; many more were sold out as it progressed.
                The attendance breakdown shows that Friday was busier than previous years, building up to an almost sold-out Saturday when the village streets were lined with cars and the guest houses packed. Sunday was busy too. Controversial events – politics and debates – and those featuring well-known writers in conversation were the most popular. Who’s Afraid of the ANC? in the School Hall had an estimated audience of 270 with many more turned away.
  
Publicity
This was well handled, as in 2009, by Gilly Hemphill of The Famous Idea and her assistant Cilnette Pienaar. They gained us extensive radio and press coverage, with the pleasing involvement and support (at last) of the Cape Times whose readership is our target market in the Western Cape.  Every year Jenny Crwys-Williams on 702 Talk Radio in Johannesburg gives us enthusiastic coverage for weeks, as does John Maytham on Cape Talk; this year we had two interviews each with Karabo Kgoleng and Sue Grant-Marshall on SAFM and ongoing interviews on a number of local stations.

FLF Library Fund
As we wrote in our first report-back, our aim from the beginning has been to make the FLF much more than a literary festival for already-privileged readers.  We want it to become a focus of reading and writing awareness in our country that will spur on talented young people to see writing as a serious profession, and in our own valley, to stimulate a culture of reading to the point where our children read easily because they have access to books from an early age.
                The initial intention was to raise funds for a new community library, but a suitable site is still not available. Considering the dire current state of education, we think the best use of the Fund going forward will be to start upgrading – and in some cases provide – school libraries in the Valley. We have approached Equal Education, the Cape Town NGO which is pushing for One School, One Library, One Librarian, for expert help.  There are four primaries – Dalubuhle, Groendal, Wemmershoek and Wes-Eind – and two high schools – Franschhoek and Groendal. The training of teacher-librarians will be a priority; there are short courses available at the University of the Western Cape.
                               
Issues

• Numbers have grown 50% every year and we only have 5 suitable venues: one 30 seater, two 80 seaters and two 240-250 seaters. Without wanting to grow too much bigger, which would take away the writer-reader intimacy which is the hallmark of the FLF, one way of providing more seats would be to start the Festival at 10am on Friday and end later on Sunday.
• With the original FLF Committee down to two, we need to co-opt more volunteers and a partly-paid office worker from January onwards. Liesl King of Kusasa (invited because of her close involvement with local schools) has already agreed to join the Committee.
• The literary dinners were sold out in advance and there is a strong case to have fundraising chefs’ dinners again next year, which will be explored.
• Some festival-goers complain about having to choose between, usually, four events in a given hour, but having fewer events per hour would unduly prolong the Festival.
• Poetry Competition: we need someone to run it better, which should include re-connecting with the prison education department to encourage offenders to take part.

Conclusion
The FLF works because keen readers can engage with interesting, accessible writers at venues within a short walking distance of each other, creating a wonderful buzz around books. The writers enjoy the relaxed village ambience, the informal events, the exposure to readers, the contact and conversations with other writers, and the pampering in guest houses.

We acknowledge and thank our generous donors: new associates Porcupine Ridge Wines and the Sunday Times, guest house owners and voluntary workers who give their time and energy to make it an event to remember. The next FLF will take place from 13 to 15 May 2011.

And we continue to share the sentiments of Madiba, who once said, “It is my wish that the voice of the storyteller will never die in Africa, that all children in the world may experience the wonder of books, and that they will never lose the capacity to enlarge their earthly dwelling place with the magic of stories.”