AFROPUNK Festival is returning bigger and stronger to Johannesburg this festive season to usher-in the New Year (2019) and celebrate Africa in all its glory with a burst of energy, color, style, music, activism and prints.
From the 30th and 31st December 2018, the iconic Constitution Hill in Braamfontein will be a heaven of activities with the People’s Park set to host over 30 000 strong crowds over the two days.
AFROPUNK Joburg joins an elite collection of festivals globally, positioning the Gauteng City Region amongst the world’s leading entertainment and creative economy cities.
AFROPUNK’s presence in Johannesburg is a logical extension of how AFROPUNK wants to create connections through the Diaspora. The return of a much bigger and better AFROPUNK in Gauteng and South Africa will build on the global excitement created last year after the first-ever AFROPUNK on the African continent, attracting over 3000 tourists from across the globe to ignite the province during what is normally our low season, the festive season.
This year we are hoping the festival will draw over 5000 visitors from around the world to Gauteng thus helping us to deliver on our target of attracting international visitors into the city region.
AFROPUNK Festival is an annual arts festival that celebrates and unifies the cultural cornerstones of AFROPUNK through music, film, skate, and art.
It is a safe place, a blank space to freak out in, to construct a new reality, to live your life as you see fit, while making sense of the world around you.
The festival originally sought to provide black people an opportunity to build community amongst the predominantly white punk subcultures. To attract a wider audience, the festival shifted to include soul music, which expanded its target demographic.
The festival is the culminating celebration for a driven, informed and enthusiastic community that is committed to amplifying the voices of the unheard and unseen.
Pushing beyond clichés, boundaries and expectations, AFROPUNK is redefining the modern multicultural experience globally, driven by the mission to unleash freedom of expression and honor the power of individuality, while strengthening our community.
Out of last year’s inaugural event, the direct, indirect and induced economic impact of the event for Joburg has been estimated at around R100 million.
The economic impact assessment also projects that of the R100 million contribution to GDP, around R10 million flowed to low income households and the approximate contribution to the government via tax amounted to an estimated R16 million.
The total number of temporary jobs created or permanent jobs sustained was approximately 311 with an annualised income derived by employees as a direct, indirect or induced impact of the event amounted to R20 million.
With the expected growth of the event this year and the coming years, we are excited and looking forward to hosting this quality event in Gauteng. Events help us to position our destination globally and overall assists in increasing visitation
This year’s Joburg Festival, is once again expected to captivated festival goers and onlookers alike with a wonderland of music headlined by amongst others, The Internet, Kaytranada, Kwesta, Flying Lotus, Thandiswa, Phuzekhemisi, Moonchild Sanelly and an array of fashion, visual art, social discourse and food.
Rallied together under the 2018 thematic focus, The People Resist, attendees will be encouraged to explore how we can utilize our cultural traditions and economic power to subvert oppressive structures and unite citizens of the Diaspora across the globe. AFROPUNK is much more than a festival, it is a gathering of social consciousness unleashing the power of the creative economy to do good and be good.
This is very much synonymous with the Gauteng City Region and its sprawling metropolis of Johannesburg.
