The City of Johannesburg has postponed the “Aluta Nova Festival of Museums” which was set to take place on Saturday at the James Hall Museum of Transport.
Urban Village, Ami Faku, The Charles Gene Suite, Bilal Da DJ, Uncle Partytime, Your Uncle Garry, Kat Upendi and The Dig Experience were set to headline the inaugural festival.
The decision to postpone the event was due to the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the province.
“The City prioritises the health and safety of its citizens and due to the rising number of Covid-19 statistics in Gauteng and the limited number of guests allowed for outdoor gatherings, the City of Joburg has made the responsible decision to postpone the event to a later date in September, or as informed by the national Covid-19 regulations,” reads the statement issued by the City of Joburg.
The “Aluta Nova Festival of Museums” is anticipated to become one of the City’s signature programmes, curated to offer the youth an opportunity to learn about and explore history and heritage through a decolonial cultural lens, with the aim of breathing air of renewal into the museums of the City.
Furthermore, the festival sets out to encourage a museum-going culture among the youth who inhabit the city.
The Covid pandemic has transformed the face of the creative and cultural industry, with most cultural institutions closing down.
The chief curator of the James Hall Museum of Transport, Gaisang Sathekge, who is also the festival curator, says that with this museum festival programme, the aim is to resuscitate museum spaces by “decentring the idea that heritage is a traditional and sacred concept” that should not be touched by the “unclean voices of contemporary culture”.
She adds: “This is the idea that the City wants to disrupt and deconstruct through this festival ’Aluta Nova Festival of Museums’.
“Aluta Nova simply means ’A New Struggle’. We are no longer fighting demons of dead traditions but are faced with new challenges to rewrite history and reimagine our own place in the now.”
The new date for the festival is yet to be announced.