Folklore Festival kicks off at Black Labone’s Earthday celebrations at State Theatre

To kick-start the Folklore Festival, its founder and director Pilani Bubu will bring her annual festival to Black Labone as the Tshwane art movement celebrates its seventh anniversary at The State Theatre.

The collaboration between the two movements has been three years in the making.

“I’ve been in talks with Philani for the past three years and we never imaged it would turn out like this, we always thought Black Labone would have a stage at Folklore, not the Folklore having a stage at Black Labone,” Black Labone organiser Izah, said speaking to The Citizen.

Black Labone is an art movement from Tshwane hosted every Thursday at the State Theatre while the Folklore Festival was established three years ago. 

Previous editions of the Folklore festival were hosted in a single day but this year the Folklore festival is celebrating 30 years of democracy, over 30 days in three cities- Tshwane being the first stop, at Black Labone.

 “When we started three years ago we approached Black Labone because we’re premised out of a community, the folklore community is what we’re driving. We wanted to have this feeling of this inter-city, instead of being this one big festival,” Bubu told The Citizen.

“…and what I like about Black Labone [is] how they’ve been able to create a prolific line-up and shows, every Thursday where musicians come on their own accord and the community comes and I feel like they uphold a sense of certain African values.”

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She spoke to the publication on Wednesday at the National School of the Arts where this year’s edition of the festival was officially launched.

At its core, the Folklore festival emphasises storytelling, intergenerational dialogue, and showcasing Indigenous Knowledge Systems through various art forms such as music, poetry, literature, and dance.

The family-oriented gathering is aimed at reconnecting communities during August and September.

Attendees can expect a multidisciplinary experience with a main stage concert, workshops, a book fair, and a special kids’ area with drumming circles and educational activities.

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Community

The Folklore stage, curated by Bubu and her team at Black Labone, will feature poets and musicians. “We’re running the activation and we’re sponsoring the stage and the setup and we’re bringing in certain intersections with the artists,” said Bubu.

“It’s very soulful in that sense, that it’s not done for capital gain. For me, the intersection with the folk and poetry stage is adding a dynamic to the music culture of a different genre and I like that Izah and the team have now found this one avenue that we could create together.

“Working with Pilani is great, she’s what the industry needs. To be able to be associated with a programme like this, three cities, 30 days and Black Labone is right there, we find that very interesting.”  

 This is going to be the first Earthday celebration at the State Theatre.  After the closure of the entertainment venue African Beer Emporium (ABE) late last year, the South African State Theatre (SAST) opened its doors to weekly the event and hasn’t looked back.

Black Labone attracts between 500 to 800 patrons on an ordinary Thursday, its annual Earthday celebration pulls a crowd of at least 2000 attendees but Izah spoke with confidence about the theatre being able to accommodate the expected big numbers.

“We only registered 1800 but people flowed in even more after that, we estimate a little of 2000 came last year. We know that the State Theatre is working hard to accommodate the possible numbers,” Izah said.

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