The decision not to fund the country's longest-running arts festival was communicated a month before its start date.

One of the major funders of arts and culture organisations in the country, the National Lotteries Commission (NLC), has declined to provide funding for the National Arts Festival (NAF), which celebrates its 50th anniversary this month. The festival also did not receive NLC funding for its 11-day event last year.

This is despite the NLC having been a big funder of South Africa's largest and longest-running arts festival for 20 years.

Since 2003, the NLC has provided more than R86-million to the festival, which takes place every year during mid-winter in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape.

The festival is a significant contributor to the economy of the Eastern Cape town. The South African Cultural Observatory calculated in 2019 that along with the 2,000 performers who travelled to Makhanda, the festival attracted 200,000 visitors and gave a R350-million boost to the impoverished local economy.

National Arts Festival CEO Monica Newton said they applied in August 2023 for a multiyear grant "at the maximum threshold" of what can be awarded, expecting that they might receive a reduced grant subject to availability of funds.

But on 21 May, nine months later and a month before the festival starts, Newton said...