The theme for the 2022 Toyota SU Woordfees arts festival is Wild – a playful concept that festival director, Saartjie Botha, says has her “bubbling over with enthusiasm for the two festivals that Woordfees will be celebrating this year after two years of national anxiety and frustration both in and about the arts environment.”
“You go wild,” says Botha, “when you no longer have anything left to lose or hide; when you want to tear away from fear and reservation. Sometimes it is precisely what is needed to inject new courage and breath into life and give it new meaning. Wild is authentic and essential for the kind of art that challenges everything and opens doors to new perspectives. Nothing is wilder and more liberating than the imagination, and our pent-up creative energies are ready to gush forth after two years of limbo.
“Our festival this year may be smaller but it will happen with renewed spirit on two different platforms: nationally, on DStv and on GOtv (Namibia only) from 15 to 28 July, and from 10 to 16 October in Stellenbosch – a day longer than initially planned.”
Given the success of Woordfees TV 2021 (the first ever arts festival to take place on a DStv pop-up channel which was broadcast from 1 to 10 October), MultiChoice will once again make a channel available for Woordfees TV 2022, and this time for 14 full days. Last year’s TV festival was initially planned for seven days, but was extended for an extra weekend due to popular demand.
“We’re proud to again be associated with Woordfees TV, not only does the channel allow us to bring entertainment relevant to our customers, it also aligns to our commitment to support and grow local content. By giving our Afrikaans viewers access to the Woordfees festival through the channel we are able to support arts, culture, entertainment and literature by broadening the audience of the already popular festival,” says Gideon Khobane, MultiChoice Group Executive of General Entertainment.
In 2021, only subscribers to DStv Premium and DStv Compact Plus packages had access to the Woordfees TV pop-up channel. This year, DStv Compact and DStv Family customers will also be able to experience Woordfees TV in South Africa. In Namibia, the channel will also be available to Compact subscribers but not on the Family bouquet. Woordfees TV will also be broadcast on GOtv Channel 27 in Namibia which will be accessible to Max and Supa subscribers. This means that a significantly larger audience will be able to enjoy the warmth and excitement of the festival in their own homes.
The festival TV programme will again this year offer most of the genres that are usually part of the live festival: the EasyEquities Books and Writers’ Festival, Drama, Contemporary music with the Toyota Big Five concerts and Standard Bank Jazz set, Classical Music, the Savanna Stand-up Comedy series, the Stellenbosch Wine Routes Lifestyle programme, Netwerk24 Discussion series, Strauss & Co Visual Arts programme and dance. The Standard Bank agriculture series will also be part of this year’s line-up. Repeats of some of the most popular 2021 TV festival programmes will be broadcast in non-primetime slots. New programmes specially produced for 2022, will be available on DStv Catch Up.
In collaboration with the Words Open Worlds (WOW) Project, the festival programme will also include educational elements and a spelling competition.
All narrative content and discussions will have English subtitles.
The programme content and broadcast times for Woordfees TV will be made available in the media on 21 June 2022.
Toyota SU Woordfees TV 2022 will be broadcast from 15 to 28 July on DStv channel 150. See woordfees.co.za and follow the Woordfees on social media for all the latest information about the festival.
