The Hermanus FynArts Festival is in its fifth year, having started on Friday, and runs until Sunday 18 June, in various venues in Hermanus. It is my second year of attending this diverse Festival, ably organized by local Mary Faure and her team, who have created a feast of a Festival. 

In her introduction to the very comprehensive almost 90 page program, organizer Mary writes that the Festival ‘does not only celebrate the creativity of people but also seeks to encourage the appreciation of it in its diverse form’. She adds that there is something for everyone in the programme, including art exhibitions, concerts, talks, presentations, workshops, demonstrations, tutored tastings of wine and gin, dining, films, and a Children’s program. 

Overstrand Executive Mayor Rudolph Smith welcomes Festival goers, and writes that it is a celebration of the arts across genres, and aims to combine a love for fine art with the natural beauty of the coastal landscape. 

To give readers a taste of the diversity and magnitude of the Hermanus FynArts Festival I have highlighted some of the many events which will run over the ten day Festival. I loved attending it last year, and will make it an annual event in my calendar. 

#  Music performances: Broadway Spectacular (11 June); Toccata concert on marimba and vibraphone (13 June); Odeion String Quartet (14 June); Baroqueswing (16 June); Swinging Sixties (17 June); Gabriel Duo harp and flute recital (12 June); Baroque to contemporary film music (13 June); The Romantic Piano with Francois du Toit (15 June); Strings Delight and Ifidyoli  Ensemble 16 June); Organ Ensemble (17 June); Lusanda Spiritual Group (17 June); Swing, Sing and all that Jazz (18 June). Last night I attended a most enjoyable performance by the Divas of Swing Zolani Mahola (of Freshlyground) and Adelia Douw, which ended off with almost all 700 members of the audience getting up and dancing in the church pews. Richard Cock was the conductor. 

#  Theatre performances:   An evening with Marius Weyers and Bosman (12 June); My Travel Bag by Gcina Mhlophe (15 June); Poetry reading by Kobus Moolman (14 June); Rieldans (16 June)

#  Art: ‘Transition’ by Willie Bester at Rossouw Modern SPACE; Sculpture on the Cliffs; Brahm van Zyl; Bronwen Clacherty; Emma Willemse; Hannelie Coetzee; Hasan and Husain Essop; Jaco Sieberhagen; Karen Press; Ledelle Moe; Raymond Smith; Richard Forbes; Right Mukore; Sculptures by Lionel Smit, Adriaan Diedericks, Gavin Younge, George Holloway, Gordon Froud, Jean Theron Louw, Guy du Toit, Marieke Prinsloo Rowe at Municipal Auditorium. Strijdom van der Merwe; Wilma Cruise. Yvette Weyers; Dylan Lewis; Group Ceramics exhibition at Windsor Hotel. Meet the artists in their studios. Art exhibitions at Abalone Art Gallery, Bellini, Canvas of Life Gallery, Gallery Charmaine de Jongh Gelderblom, Geta Finlayson Studio, Forty X 40, Gillian Hahn Art Gallery, Whale House, Herman Swart Hall, Jubilee Gallery, Kunskantoor Contemporary Art Gallery, Malcolm Bowling Gallery, Pure South, Originals, Rossouw Modern, The Art Gallery, Walkerbay Art Gallery, Walkerbay Modern, Daniël de Kock Gallery, Mission’s House Gallery, Ralph Walton, Creation, Benguela Cove Manor House, Newton Johnson, Sumaridge Wine Estate, and Old Synagogue. 

#   Talks: by Frank Kilbourn (Life in Art), Lien Botha (role of curator), Bill Nasson (History Matters), Christopher Till (Apartheid Museum), Gordon Froud and Wilma Cruise (Alice in Wonderland), Dizu Plaatjies (Music of Sub-Saharan Africa), South African Art Museums, Michael Godby (Contemporary SA photography), Felicity Jervis (Stories behind the Canvas), Marilyn Martin (Abstract Art), Anton Odendaal (Brood Parasitic Behaviour in Birds), Alex Robertson and Jo-Anne Duggan (West Coast Fossil Park), Mike Bruton (Science and environmental writing), Charl du Plessis (crossover music), John Parkington (Rock Art of Western Cape). 

#   Workshops: on Life Drawings, Marvellous Mugs, Art of flute making, cellphone photography (very interesting, I learnt a lot, and did this Macro of a stem of broccoli), mosaic, silversmith and design, losing and finding, bread making with Chef Warwick Taylor, The Memoir, Lowlight photography, Black & White photography, Beading, Birding for Beginners, Plein Air Landscape, Watercolour Ways, Children’s picture books, photography as fine art, origami, The Short Story, Mark Making, Drawing with light and dark, felted house shoes, Everybody can improvise.

#   Cooking demonstrations: Desserts, Japan, Abalone in the Far East, Lebanese cooking, and Scottish food. 

#    Demonstrations:  Framing pictures, Live bronze art casting, making felt, and book binding.

#   Wine Tutored Tastings: Jan Boland Coetzee (11 June), Rosa Kruger (11June), Ntsiki Biyela (12 June), Razvan Macici (12 June), Christian Eedes (13 June), Gin Revolution (16 June), history of winemaking in the Hemel-en-Aarde valley by Anthony Hamilton Russell (16 June). 

#   Vintage Films: Amadeus (12 June), Pride and Prejudice (13 June), West Side Story (14 June), Witness for the Prosecution (15 June), Singin’ in the Rain (16 June), The story of Vernon and Irene Castle (17 June), The Heiress (17 June), U-Carmen eKhayelitsha (18 June). 

Hermanus FynArts, 9 – 18 June 2017. Tel (028) 312-2629 www.hermanusfynarts.co.za. www.webtickets.co.za. Twitter: @HermanusFynArts

Chris von Ulmenstein, WhaleTales Blog: www.chrisvonulmenstein.com/blog Tel +27 082 55 11 323 Twitter:@Ulmenstein Facebook: Chris von Ulmenstein Instagram: @Chris_Ulmenstein