Marimbas going digital; hopefully viral.

Every year our little village in Mpumalanga, South Africa, holds a classical music festival that runs over a long weekend. This is the Wakkerstroom Music Festival. As part of a community upliftment programme we began a small marimba band in conjunction with a young woman, Charity Nsibande, who runs an after school learning programme for disadvantaged children. Over the following few years the programme was such a success that we now have three bands, and our first band attended the Steel Band and Marimba competition in Johannesburg last year, and came third in the classical section. 

It was with huge sadness that we had to cancel the festival this year because of the virus, but there have been small benefits that have emerged. The National Arts Festival, which also runs every year, and which is second in size to the Edinburgh Festival, also had to cancel this year. But instead of cancelling outright, the team there decided to go digital. This has meant that the team has had to pull out all the stops to prepare for a new platform which will run over the usual dates that the festival runs in June/July. 

What does this mean for us, here, far away in a small rural village? It means that we can submit a digital concert and be part of a global experience. The challenges are not without difficulties, but if a team of live theatre experts can pull rabbits out of hats on a massive scale in such a short space of time, so can we. It takes courage to learn new skills; skills that one would not have really wanted to learn, or needed to learn, until one is forced to. We have jumped through hoops, some of them flaming, to be able to have permission to rehearse and film with the children, but this will begin next week. Charity and her band will be supported by Enock Makubu, a local film-maker who has been struggling for work for months now. The other win is that we can charge a small ticket price, which means that the concert will be affordable for all. And when I say 'all', I am referring to anyone who has access to the internet and an interest in the arts - basically a global audience. What an opportunity! 

The team at the National Arts Festival is supporting us with the relevant documentation, advice, and physical support in the way of sanitizers, which are all needed to make this happen. And their support is unconditional; all that is required is 10% of ticket sales. Nobody says 'no, but', they say 'yes, and', and this is what is giving us this exciting space within which work and play now.

What does this mean for live theatre in the future? Well, that remains to be seen. If we have learnt one thing from the virus it is that physical space is more important than we ever realized, so as much as there is place for digital reaching out, live face-to-face engagement will not be a thing of the past. In the meantime we have learnt so much, and our little band will make loud and wonderful music. And the music will reach the far corners of the planet.