Annual Montagu Music, Art, Dance and Drama Festival Kicks Off Today

From the 7th to 17th August 2013, the annual Montagu Music, Art, Dance and Drama Festival (MMADD) takes place in the picturesque town of Montagu in the Klein Karoo, on Route 62. M.M.A.D.D draws talent mainly from Primary, High School and Tertiary education institutions in Cape Town and the surrounding areas, including Port Elizabeth, Mossel Bay, Worcester and George. The festival categories are Music, Art, Photography, Dance, Literature, Poetry, Drama and Puppetry, with the latter being a newly introduced Arts section for 2013. The theme for the Art entries this year is 'Woman', in keeping with Women's Day on 9 August and celebrations that happen throughout the month.

The Festival event was started in 1995 by local teachers, the local Tourism office and volunteers and has grown in strength over the past 17 years. In 2011, Helen Gooderson took over the reins as Festival Director and renamed it as the Montagu Music Art Dance and Drama (MMADD) Festival. She simultaneously registered the Rural Arts Development programme (RAD) as an NPO. The festival works closely with RAD and offers a excellent opportunity for talented youth in the rural communities to have a performance platform and gives developing talent the chance to network with artists and professionals from all over the Province. Last year the festival attracted close to 1,000 participants from 65 schools including the first international competitors, the Zeynep Okcu Ballet School from Turkey.

The Adjudicators in the various categories this year are Victor Honey, Ronel Preston for Art; Dr Loftus Heunis, Emile Minnie for Music; Fahruq Valley-Omar, Danelle de Vries for Drama; Laresa Perlman, Hassner Pepler for Photography; Anita de Kok (Skrywersburo) for Literature; Danellle de Vries for Puppetry and Fiona du Plooy and Allison Foat for Dance. Trophies will be awarded to inviduals and groups in their respective sections. Other prizes include Master Classes with Emile Minnie, Laresa Perlman, and Graham Lea-Cox as well as a Zabalaza workshop for the winning drama group and tickets to performances by Cape Town Opera and Cape Town City Ballet.

The prize giving event that includes guest performances by various trophy winners takes place on Saturday 10th August at 4pm at the Montagu PriMary Hall and entrance is free, with donations to RAD Foundation welcome. Daily tickets are available at the door or via Computicket (08619158000) and cost R20 for adults and R10 for children or R50 for a 4 day pass. Call 082 886 8023 or visit the various Facebook pages here and here for further info.

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