The 26th edition of the Cape Town Jazzathon started at the V&A Waterfront Amphitheatre on Friday 12 January and continued until Sunday 14 January, and saw six performances daily.
The People’s Festival returned this weekend providing jazz and music lovers with soulful tunes by some of the Cape’s best local and aspiring artists.
The 26th edition of the Cape Town Jazzathon started at the V&A Waterfront Amphitheatre on Friday 12 January and continued until Sunday 14 January, and saw six performances daily.
The festival is the longest-running music event in South Africa.
The annual, free-to-public event, provides a platform for aspiring artists to showcase their talents while offering them mentorship programmes.
Festival goers were entertained by artists like Jodi Jantjies, Cape Steelpan Ensemble, Kujenga and Jonathan Rubain and the Bottelary Blokfluit Blasers among others.
Craig Parks of JCQ Productions and festival director, explains that for the first time, the Cape Town Jazzathon takes on a different approach this includes the Jazzathon Easter Camp from Friday 29 March to Monday 1 April. And the Cape Town Jazzathon African Celebration at GrandWest from Friday 28 to Sunday 30 June.
“The objective behind the three festivals is to create a Jazzathon Circuit where artists who emerge from The Summer Showcase, could eventually perform at other festival venues around Cape Town and surrounding areas,” he explains.
Parks explains that they have visited various community schools in Cape Town, the Karoo, The West Coast and the Garden Route to ensure that as many music organisations are given the recognition they deserve.
Artists and bands who appeared over the weekend had the opportunity to showcase their talent as unearthed by various community music schools.
Parks says: “We usually base the success of Jazzathon on the number of new, young and upcoming artists who we’re able to discover and showcase over the three-day festival period. Then we try to balance the known artists with the new ones. We feel that we have achieved a perfect balance this year as we featured a legacy of artists who have paved the way for the youth. We also gave opportunities to youth to learn the ropes as crew members at Jazzathon.”
“Besides the three-day showcase, we are excited to travel to various communities around the Western Cape, where we will conduct basic music business and development workshops.” He further reiterates, “While patrons can expect the usual music-filled fun in the sun with friends and family, we encourage promotors and producers to scout around at Jazzathon for fresh talent and interact with previously unknown artists”
Steenberg resident Johan Witbooi said he and his family have been attending the festival since it started 26 years ago.
Tiffany Julius from Hanover Park said she attends to enjoy the music and “good atmosphere” the festival provides.
Local artist Jodi Jantjies said she is elated to make her debut performance at the Jazzathon.
“I am excited to see all the people and share my music with the audience.”
“Even though we started slowly on Friday we soon achieved capacity crowds over the weekend and ended off with an amazing line-up. The festival was well received and the appreciative daily audiences proved that Jazzathon is well loved by Cape Town and the large amount of international visitors to the V&A who intended to pop in but prolonged their stay to watch the performances festival for long periods at a time,” Parks concludes.
