The much anticipated annual Montagu Music, Art, Dance and Drama Festival (MMADD), celebrating its 20th year, is around the corner.
Hosted by the Rural Arts Development Foundation (RAD) from 12 to 22 August in Montagu, MMADD provides an adjudicated performance platform for primary, high school and tertiary education institutions in Cape Town and the surrounding areas. The festival categories are music, art, craft, photography, dance, literature, poetry, drama and puppetry. The theme for the art entries this year is Heritage.
The festival event was started in 1995 by Montagu High teachers, the local tourism office and volunteers, and has grown in strength over the past 20 years. In 2011, Helen Gooderson took over the reins as Festival Director and renamed it the Montagu Music Art Dance and Drama Festival. She simultaneously registered the Rural Arts Development (RAD) programme as a non-profit organisation. RAD engages rural youth in all forms of visual and performing arts and offers an excellent opportunity for talented youth 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 over 1 000 entries from 62 schools.
The festival’s opening event will be held at the Montagu Museum Gallery on 12 August at 18:00, where guests can view an exhibition of art by all the entrants, meet the trophy winners and the art adjudicators.
The music and dance programme will run from 12 to 15 August, with the choir performances taking place in the Dutch Reformed Church on Friday 14 August at 19:00, and the orchestra and ensembles on Saturday 15 August at 19:00, after which the dance and music prize-giving takes place.
The drama programme runs from Wednesday 19 to Saturday 22 August. The drama prize-giving event, which includes a showcase, takes place on the 22nd at 17:00 at the Montagu Dutch Reformed (NG) church Hall.
Daily tickets are available at the door or via Computicket and 0861 915 8000 and cost R20 for adults and R10 for children or R50 for a four-day pass. Entry to the showcase on 22 August is free with donations to RAD welcome. For more information, call 082 886 8023
