Cape Town - One of the biggest festivals in Africa, the annual Cape Town International Jazz Festival (CTIJF), maintained a 50-50 local to international artists ratio for their programme when former festival director and co-founder Rashid Lombard was at the helm.
After Billy Domingo became director in 2014, the festival’s music programming has taken a different turn.
Domingo says: “It is not the fault of the international artist that his dollar is worth x, y and * . It is global currency rates and that’s what it goes for when I take R5 from you, I want to give you 500 back in quality. And how do I do that? By creating a performance and a platform from which you can enjoy.”
In this way, Domingo hopes to build on 17 years of the festival’s growth, continuing in the vein which saw the festival listed in Fest300s top 30 festivals around the world.
The CTIJF is the flagship event of espAfrika, a production house and African Equity Empowerment Investments (AEEI) subsidiary. AEEI, an investment firm owned by Sekunjalo Investment Holdings, has been involved in growing the festival’s coffers and footprint and has its sights set on expanding the production house’s business into Africa.
In 2007, espAfrika faced a possibly life-threatening shortage of funds and approached several potential investors to buy into the company.
Dr Iqbal Survé of Sekunjalo Investment Holdings showed interest but would only bite if he was to have the biggest slice of the espAfrika pie.
A majority stake of 51% was sold to Sekunjalo in 2007. The investment allowed espAfrika and the festival to stay afloat.
Khallid Abdulla, AEEI chief executive and acting chief executive at espAfrika, has been a major protagonist in steering the production company and its festival’s financial future.
Growing up in Cape Town, Abdulla picked up a lot about business early on in life from his entrepreneur father.
But sport was his passion in the early years. He competed in athletics and volleyball at a provincial level and in football at a national level.
But in part because of his racial classification in apartheid South Africa, and the lack of financial stability and sustainability in sport at the time, Abdulla pursued studies in finance.
He would attain a BComp degree from Unisa, while working for a small accountancy firm in Cape Town to gain experience and doing weekend shifts at a hardware store to keep the lights on.
These early hardships, along with his successes and failures in sport, make him an interesting choice for heading a company that hosts “Africa’s grandest gathering”.
The pragmatic Abdulla says: “I think there are a lot of Khallid Abdullas out there. I’m not unique I’ve been blessed and I’ve been very successful over the last few years, with the group, as well as espAfrika.”
South Africa holds more annual festivals than any other African country. The funding models applied at each are suited to its purpose, audience and means.
The two major jazz festivals in the country, the CTIJF and the Joy of Jazz festival, held annually in Johannesburg, both use a mix of private and public sponsorship as a major source of income.
For espAfrika, the financial buck stops with Abdulla but the person ultimately accountable for smooth operations is Domingo, espAfrika co-founder, chief operations officer and CTIJF director.
For Domingo, the five stage, two-day festival needs to be seen as a whole. “The operative word is ‘festival’. This is a festival made out of 44 artists, five stages, global participation, different genres of music, therefore, the idea is you’re paying R11 to see George Benson because if you amortise the costs, that’s all it’s going to cost,” he says.
The support from Sekunjalo and AEEI has been an important component in the trajectory of espAfrika since 2007. When the buyout was finalised, Domingo “could sign contracts knowing there were always funds”.
“Normally, you say: ‘Get funds, do this.’ They (Sekunjalo) said: ‘No, go large.’ And we did!”
Risky business
Essential in not only keeping the festival profitable but also making sure the firm behind it reaches its milestones, is avoiding unwarranted risk. Not easy for any festival, it is especially challenging for a five-stage festival.
This risk aversion, though, has meant the festival’s musical programming has erred on the safe side and, in some years, failed to thrill fans. There have often been reappearances by acts who prove popular with certain age groups. This is in contrast with youth-targeting festivals in the Western Cape which rely on the their market’s shortening memory.
Increasingly, espAfrika has focused on the lifestyle element of the festival. This, in a nutshell, is everything else but the music – the sun, scene and surf of Cape Town. This is not only advantageous for Domingo, Abdulla and the espAfrika team, however. The City of Cape Town’s mayor, Patricia de Lille, says last year the festival injected R61.8 million in direct spend into the local economy in return for the city pumping R1.65m in cash and R1.1m in services into the festival.
Add to that the 3 244 direct and 298 indirect jobs created and it becomes obvious why the City of Cape Town has renewed its three-year agreement with the CTIJF.
The mayor says: “The festival has no doubt been one of the biggest contributors to Cape Town’s reputation as the events capital of Africa The risks and the disadvantages are minimal because every year the event [is] a success. Not only do these large events contribute to local coffers, the global media exposure for the [city] is phenomenal.”
Expansion imperative
In the past, espAfrika has hosted festivals in Luanda, Angola, and in Maputo, Mozambique and has set its sights on expansion into Africa. A second property was added to its portfolio last year with the Royal Escape Experience held at Sun City resort in South Africa’s North West province.
Abdulla says: “We’ve successfully bedded down the CTIJF Africa is our next step. There are a lot of alliances we’ve built and I think we will grow into various parts on the continent.”
EspAfrika’s growth contributes not only to the South African cultural economy but also to an understanding of business and culture on a continent where many music festivals are dependent on Western non-governmental organisations for funding. Only time can tell whether this model proves sustainable and replicable. Until that time comes, the festival offers a soundtrack for the wait.