The National Arts Festival has announced exciting new additions to the 2023 music line-up. The sounds of South African superstar Vusi Nova and the resonant voice of the soulful singer, Ami Faku, will fill the Guy Butler Theatre in Makhanda’s Monument over the two Festival weekends. Vusi Nova takes the stage on 24 June at 20h00 and Ami Faku appears in two performances, one on Saturday 1 July at 21h00 and the other, an afternoon matinee, at 14h00 on the last day of the Festival (2 July).

Both artists hail from the Eastern Cape; Nova leaving his New Brighton home at the age of fourteen to pursue a career in music, and Faku growing up in Ezinyoka, where her Father was a pastor, her early years filled with song. The artists share their heritage with another big music name on the bill at this year’s Festival. Eastern Cape born and raised Msaki will be performing at the NAF as the 2022 Standard Bank Young Artist (SBYA) for Music this year.

Msaki’s SBYA work is an extraordinary journey into creativity at a pivotal moment in her life and career, marking her final performative appearance before a period of reflection and renewal. It encompasses a Guy Butler stage performance titled Embo Time Travel Experiment(30 June at 20h00) as well as Del’ukufa: (Dare to Die) a multi-media exhibition. A magnificent celebration of the catalogue of her songs, Bawo Khusela, will be performed in the Cathedral, arranged and accompanied by a 23-piece choir, uHadi ensemble, and traditional String Quartet, as part of Spiritfest. 

Msaki will also hold a series of Quantum Creativity Workshops during the Festival in partnership with the Black Power Station, this includes an indigenous instrument-making workshop facilitated by KHNYSA and a discussion about the legacy of traditional music legend Madosini, as well as a creativity workshop with Msaki and a celebration of ancient future sounds and alternative Africa music through concert series ALTBLK >> FM.

Msaki’s meteoric rise may have taken her far from the NAF’s Fringe stages of her early career and her school years in Makhanda (then Grahamstown) but the town is where she returns to close a chapter. As a space resonant with meaning, both personal and historical, her works will be rich in spiritual questions and focused on her journey inward; revisiting old sites of pain with the intention to heal and re-integrate the shadows of her past self.

The full National Arts Festival programme is online at www.nationalartsfestival.co.za and can be searched by date, genre, artist, and production. Tickets can be reserved and paid for online.