Mangaung African Cultural Festival


The Mangaung African Cultural Festival is an annual showcase of African arts, culture and various sports disciplines that takes place in Bloemfontein, South Africa. It is one of the largest emerging festivals in Africa; it grew from having an audience of 30 000 in 1997 to 140 000 in 2015.
The festival runs for 10 days beginning on the first week of October each year in the Free State province of South Africa.
MACUFE consists of a main musical festival, an arts and crafts exhibition, theatre productions, a beauty pageant, the Sparta Macufe Cup which is a soccer league at the Free State stadium and performing arts. It also hosts an official corporate village where there are brand specific lounges, each with their own client service personnel.

History

Even though the unfolding of an arts festival platform after 1994 in the New South Africa was a key development in SA professional theatre, numerous festivals did relatively little to explore and celebrate black South African culture, theatre or productions. Every festival had a small number of black artists taking part in productions, and audiences included a few black theatre-goers, but the participation of the white and Western-oriented producers, as well as audiences, outweighed the contribution from black African and historically put artists and festival-goers at a disadvantage. Apart from some exceptional cases, English and Afrikaans were used almost exclusively on the festival stages.
The festival was launched in 1997 by the Free State Provincial Government to celebrate the best local and international African artists in various disciplines. At the announcement of the festival in 1997 the general manager of SABC2, Thaninga Msimango, declared that “the concept was initiated because there was no cultural festival that expressed the rich culture of indigenous South Africans.” The Free State MEC for sports, arts and culture, M.W. Molefe, added that “most popular and successful festivals in South Africa are focused on Eurocentric culture, paying scant regard to indigenous African culture". Officially dubbed an “African cultural festival”, rather than an “arts festival”, the intention was clear: to stage an event that would recognise and celebrate indigenous African cultural heritage, and specifically as a balance to the other arts festivals which were perceived to do little in that regard.

Events

The Department of Arts and Culture and the Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation in Free State are some of the largest sponsors of the festival, spending a surplus of 20 million rand each year. Other sponsors include SA Express, Standard Bank, Vodacom and the National Lotteries Commission.
Lesedi FM radio, Daily Sun, Sunday Sun, The Sowetan, The New Age and The Africas News Network are amongst some of the largest known platforms that cover the festival. The SABC are also amongst the broadcasters at the festival.