National Arts Festival Updates 2025 Programme, Bookings Now Open

Road will be performed at the 2025 National Arts Festival. Image supplied

Taking place from 26 June to 6 July 2025, the National Arts Festival is South Africa’s longest-running arts festival takes place in Makhanda in the Eastern Cape.

Musing on the evolution of this year’s programme, the National Arts Festival’s artistic director, Rucera Seethal says, “The global landscape is entirely unpredictable; trends emerge and collapse, institutions quiver, shocks reverberate and radical new ideas rumble below a tense surface. The Festival is a fluid container for these conversations. Unhinged from the daily grind, artists first see and then weave - through words, art, body or expression - that which we are too busy to truly notice. At the Festival we enter this world of the artist, leaving the everyday for the unexpected.”

The programme can be found here.

Additional announcements on the festival programme include Oscar Buthelezi and Muzi Shili’s award-winning Road; a dance miniature that explores the journeys we take as human beings.

Choreographed by the 2018 Standard Bank Young Artist for Dance, Musa Hlatshwayo, Jazzart brings Portals and Petals; the subtle alchemy of my grandmother’s dreams.

On the theatre front, bold stories dig deep. One of the shows brought to the Festival with support from the Festival Enterprise Catalyst project, is Kompoun - a stage adaptation of Ronelda Kamfer’s novel of the same name, directed by Lee-Ann van Rooi. The play explores themes of innocence, perseverance and family feuds.

An update on the music front is the addition of acapella group, The Soil.

Festivalgoers can also look forward to a reimagined Eastern Cape Literature Festival (known as Lit Fest) - which will present a lineup of speakers and panellists including John Kani, Jerry Mafokeng, Khaya Dlanga, Sihle-isipho Nontshokweni-Bikilsho and Nozibele Qamngana-Mayaba.

Additional works announced for the Fringe include Roberto Pombo in Afropocolypse, while Eastern Cape storytelling will play out in the Battle Of Lurwayizo, detailing the Apartheid-era police shootout that took place in the Village of Lurwayizo, where some of the uMkhonto weSizwe veterans, including Mbulelo Ngono, Maqhekeza, and the Jafta family were regarded as terrorists.

Winner of a 2024 Silver Ovation Award, Cantos of a Life in Exile is Makhaola Ndebele’s stirring solo performance exploring exile, memory, and belonging.

Bronze Ovation winner, Yangthola! is Mongezi Ntukwana’s tragic-comedy that follows the journey of a homeless entrepreneur (performed by Alex Sono) who transforms discarded items into powerful tales of survival and resilience.

Tickets are now on sale via the Festival’s website where the programme can also be viewed.