Event information
HEAT is a winter arts festival set in Cape Town's City Centre, featuring 14 curated art exhibitions complimented by jazz, opera, theatre and Kizomba-dance programming.
With a focus on small art businesses, emerging artists and live performers, musicians and singers, the festival aims to support young cultural producers and those that create visibility for them. This year's theme is 'Common Grounds', so visitors can anticipate artworks, exhibitions, conversations, walkabouts and cuisine that enacts, encourages, and investigates concepts of community and collaboration.
Participating galleries - all within walking distance from one another - include AVA, Christopher Moller, Ebony/Curated, Eclectica Contemporary, Kalashnikovv, 99 Loop Gallery, Michaelis, Nel, Reservoir Projects, Sisonke, Under the Aegis, Union House, Vela Projects, and WORLDART.
The festival's theatre programme is headlined by celebrated local comedian and actor Rob Van Vuuren, who presents two works to the festival. Other performers include Sophie Jones of Spark in the Dark, Sibuyiselo Dywili and Siphenathi Siqwayi of Double Impact of Double Impact, and many more. Slowlife, a peripatetic jazz and classical music platform created by Paul Kahanovitz also presents two jazz ensembles at the HEAT festival.
Opera UCT have also partnered with HEAT to present three Opera performances by some of their most promising students, curated by Jeremy Silver, a celebrated conductor, pianist and director at Opera UCT. Finally, the festival also features three Kizomba dance classes, presented by Klinsmann Ferreira, an Angolan-born Kizomba Dance Choreographer. Kizomba is a captivating dance style originating from 1970s Angola, involving smooth, slow, partnered dancing.
At the helm of curating this year's event are Mary Corrigall, Nkgopoleng Moloi, Voni Baloyi, and Andrew Lamprecht. Tickets are available for purchase separately and are based on which acts visitors might like to see and/or which activities they wish to partake in, whether that be taking dance classes, seeing the various live performances or partaking in some of the 'meet the artist' events on offer.
