South Africa’s mother city’s premier arts event sees more than 100'000 fest-goers attend over 140 shows during its annual three-week run in March.

A cultural expression by the people of Cape Town, the Cape Town Festival (CTF) showcases the talents and excellence of various cultures, both local and international, to depict not only our uniqueness but also to highlight our common humanity through the arts.

CTF uses and promotes over 50 venues in and around the city including the Artscape Theatre, the Baxter Theatre, Intimate Theatre, Joseph Stone Auditorium, Distrix Café, Manenberg Jazz Café, On Broadway, and Durbanville venues, Die Kunskafee, Durbanville primary, On Broadway, the city’s Company’s Garden Precinct; Iziko Museum venues, V&A Waterfront's Amphitheatre; Manenberg Jazz café, UCT sports Complex; Grand West Casino.

The CTF has successfully established several brands under its banner like the CT International Performing Arts Festival, the Short Film Festival, the CT Youth Festival, Hip Hop Festival, Local goes Vocal, Jou Ma Se Comedy and the Cape Town Street Festival – a popular multi-dimensional event, now incorporating its predecessor Night Vision and centred in the city’s sealed-off-to-traffic Long Street. It becomes a mish-mash of fashion shows, live performances, music, art, galleries, lazer displays and PARTYING (jolling) at the numerous clubs and pubs. The daytime segment was added to cater for families, promoting art to the youth, and creating entrepreneurial and business opportunities for traders by day. Some 30000 festival-goers cash-in on the extraordinary energy of this exciting festival event.

Esther Henderson Marketing Manager

Yusuf Ganief, CEO

With Festival brands like the CT International Performing Arts Festival, the Short Film Festival, the CT Youth Festival, Hip Hop Festival, Local goes Vocal, and Jou Ma Se Comedy successfully established under the Cape Town Festival banner, the focus will be on consolidating the standard of these productions, to grow the international cultural exchange programme and to foster new partnerships with tourism and 2010 initiatives, streamlining the festival with all the major players in the city.

With the advent of the Cape Town International Performing Arts Festival in 2004, the Festival truly became an annual event celebrating diversity and promoting cultural understanding on the global map. An event that not only serves as an international entertainment platform, but also as an annual income opportunity for many of the city’s professional and emerging artists and a tourist-attracting event which brings much appeal to our growing tourist industry.