National Arts Festival - Makhanda 2026

The National Arts Festival is South Africa’s largest and most significant arts festival, held each year over approximately eleven days in late June and early July in Makhanda — the Eastern Cape university town historically known as Grahamstown. Since its founding in 1974, the festival has grown from a small regional event to a major fixture in the African cultural calendar, presenting over 200 productions across theatre, dance, music, visual art, film, and spoken word each year. Rhodes University, which dominates the town’s academic and physical landscape, provides many of the venues.

Scale and scope

The sheer variety of the National Arts Festival is its defining characteristic. In a single day, a festivalgoer might move between a mainstage theatre production, an experimental performance in a found-space venue, a gallery opening, an outdoor jazz set, and a late-night cabaret. The programme is divided between Main programme (curated, ticketed productions) and Fringe (open access, applied for by artists independently). The Fringe in particular functions as a significant platform for new South African work — many productions that have gone on to international tours began at Makhanda.

Past festivals have presented work from theatre companies, choreographers, visual artists, and musicians from across South Africa and internationally. The Eastern Cape has a distinct literary and artistic tradition associated with figures like Steve Biko and the Black Consciousness movement, and the festival programme consistently engages with South African political and social history alongside contemporary international work.

Practical planning

Makhanda is a small city of approximately 70,000 people. During the festival, its population effectively doubles, and every available bed in the town and surrounding districts is occupied. Accommodation must be booked months in advance — self-catering houses and university residences (used as festival digs) are the most common options, as hotel capacity is limited.

Flights to Makhanda are not available; the nearest airports are Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha, approximately 130 km west) and East London (approximately 180 km east). Both have daily connections from Johannesburg and Cape Town. From either airport, renting a car is the practical option. The drive from Gqeberha takes about 90 minutes; the road from East London is longer but straightforward. See our car rental guide for what to know about driving in South Africa.

Tickets

Main programme tickets are sold through the official festival website at nationalartsfestival.co.za. Popular productions sell out quickly — the programme is released several weeks before the festival opens and high-demand shows go within days of ticket release. Fringe performances are generally pay-at-the-door and cheaper.

Festival passes (all-access across Main and Fringe) are available and represent good value for visitors planning to attend multiple shows each day.

What to bring

June and July in Makhanda is the heart of the Eastern Cape winter. The town sits at around 540 m elevation and nights are cold — temperatures regularly drop to near 0°C. Daytime is crisp and often sunny. Bring proper cold-weather layers; the outdoor venues and walks between venue locations in the evening are genuinely cold.

The town has good coffee shops, restaurants, and a lively student-influenced bar scene that runs late during the festival. It is a walkable town once you are based centrally.

Tips for visitors

• Festival accommodation sells out as fast as tickets. Check the festival website accommodation listings as soon as they go live.
• Build flexibility into your schedule. Productions occasionally change time or venue and the Fringe throws up unexpected discoveries.
• A hire car is useful for day trips to the Grahamstown battlefields and the surrounding Eastern Cape — the region has significant historical sites connected to the Frontier Wars of the 19th century.
• The festival runs over a public-school-holiday period, which means family-oriented work is well represented alongside adult programming.