Countdown To National Arts Festival 2026
In 51 days, the Sihlalo Children’s African Music Group will be on its way to Grahamstown to perform at the National Arts Festival at the invitation of the International Library of African Music (ILAM), Rhodes University. So much excitement! So much to do!
The 52nd National Arts Festival happens from June 25th to July 5th 2026. It is a celebrated African arts event, showcasing theatre, music, dance, visual arts, comedy, and literature. The 2026 festival will feature emerging and established artists from South Africa, and around the world, offering performances, interactive installations, and exhibitions that celebrate creativity, cultural diversity, and community engagement. The festival generates significant cultural and economic impact for the Eastern Cape.
The Sihlalo children’s music program is a formal outreach program of ILAM. This program aims to ensure the continuity of passing African music heritage to the next generation of young African musicians. The musical director of the Sihlalo children’s program is a visiting scholar at ILAM. He spends 2 – 3 weeks at a time at ILAM researching early African instruments and music in the Hugh Tracey collection (https://www.ru.ac.za/ilam/). Hugh Tracey was a British ethnomusicologist who dedicated his life to recording, preserving, and promoting African traditional music. Between 1920 and 1970, he and his wife made over 35,000 field recordings of traditional music across Southern, Central, and East Africa. They collected instruments, photographs and diary notes which now provide a rich repository for scholars worldwide. ILAM was founded by Hugh Tracey in 1954 at Rhodes University. He brought many traditional instruments, such as the mbira (African thumb piano) and the kora (African harp) to global attention. His archive at ILAM is a cornerstone of African music studies.
