CultureFest is more than a single event. It is the culmination of a four-month creative development journey delivered through the CultureLab and Ocean Stories Lab programmes.

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Learners have explored their heritage, communities, identities and relationship with the ocean through storytelling, performance and creative production. Their work now moves from classrooms and workshops onto public stages.

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CultureFest is part of the Bukelani Living Collection

First presented at the BAT Centre in 2022, CultureFest has grown from a one-day cultural event into an extended creative-learning and performance journey.

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Today, the festival connects school programmes, community stages and professional creative productions. It provides a bridge between cultural participation, learning, talent development and public performance.

CultureFest is an initiative of the Bukelani Institute and forms part of the Bukelani Living Collection—a portfolio of distinctive cultural productions, exchanges and creative experiences.

CultureFest creates space for stories that are often unseen and voices that are too rarely heard.

It enables young people to:

• explore and celebrate their heritage;

• build confidence through creative expression;

• develop storytelling and performance capabilities;

• engage with artists and cultural practitioners;

• present their work to schools, families and wider audiences; and

• recognise creativity as a source of identity, opportunity and social connection.

• Performances by the five participating CultureLab and Ocean Stories Lab schools

• A musical performance by Ubuhle beNsindiso Ministries

• A presentation by Vande Mataram Productions

• Nqiqome KwaNdlovu — a stage production by Ubuhle beNsindiso Ministries

• My Name is Africa — the festival’s closing production, led by Amawundlu Productions

 

It was  an afternoon of theatre, music, movement, youth expression and powerful African stories.