Save Our Stages aims to raise funds during a free-to-view live 3 day event with a fantastic line-up of diverse local talent, and they invite everyone to join them for a weekend of fantastic entertainment.
Instead of asking the public to purchase tickets, the organizers decided to do away with a paid platform, but will instead offer easy options to donate towards the Save Our Stages fund if they would like to. It will be a weekend of online entertainment and industry support like we’ve never seen before in this country. This is more than just a show, this is a fund with a future.
More info about Save Our Stages
Save Our Stages will be available to stream live online from the 23rd to the 25th of July 2021. This 3 Day lineup will include everything from live music to stand-up comedy, with opportunities for shout outs, prizes and the chance to be part of the live event via our interactive social media channels.
Artists on the line-up are announced on the Save Our Stages Facebook page, and these include acts such as Prime Circle, Majozi, Early B, Zionruts Family, Steve Newman, Diamond Thug, Martin Bester, Albert Frost, a special reunion performance from Taxi Violence and more.
Comic talents such as Schalk Bezuidenhout, Rob van Vuuren, Dyllan Oliphant and many more will feature as hosts, and the event is streamed live from Stellenbosch and Gauteng.
“The curious beauty of African music is that it uplifts even as it tells a sad tale. You may be poor, you may have only a ramshackle house, you may have lost your job, but that song gives you hope.” Nelson Mandela
Mandela’s words ring true across the liberated South African tapestry and beyond. Today, even more so than in the decades of his influence, South Africa sits in a dark and even more polarised place thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Socially and economically the situation looks dire and the light at the end of this tunnel is but a dim sliver of hope for the live performance industry.
The organizers are using the donations raised during this event to fund a trust that had been set up to support local artists who are in severe distress due to the lockdown loss of work (Applications will be entertained by the SOS Trust’s guardians, industry professionals tasked with weighting each application to assist with careful oversight in providing relief where needed most).
Mail and Guardian is quoted as saying that 41% of local artists have sold some of their instruments and equipment to make ends meet during SA’s hard lockdown on the arts. Musicians are at their wits’ end, Hope is dwindling and assistance from corporate citizens and government has been woefully poor.
A further function of Save Our Stages is to employ and engage with consummate veterans of our industry to nurture dialogue, create training spaces and discuss how to empower the local performer post-lockdown AND in the current Covid-19 situation – how to become self sustainable, understanding the local music industry and to workshop the processes around submissions and claiming of royalties.
Save Our Stages is an initiative funded and produced by Izzit Productions.
The official hashtags for this event are #saveourstagessa #sossa #sabandaid #unitedsouthafrica. For more info, check out the Save Our Stages website, Facebook Page or Instagram page.
Watch this space for updates in the Music category on Running Wolf’s Rant.
