The Dutch connection

North Sea Jazz Cape Town is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year. But how did this connection with the legendary Dutch festival actually start? Come2capetown.com spoke to Rashid Lombard (director of the Cape Town Festival) and his Dutch colleague Theo van den Hoek.

Theo van den Hoek checked his passport just last week. “I’ve got a lot of South African stamps in it, I think I went over to Cape Town about twenty times now”, he says. “I’m actually surprised how fast everything went. I can just remember the first festival in 2000. I was standing outside, looking at Table Mountain, I honestly got goose bumps, and now it’s already five years later.”

There’s only one Capetonian really responsible for the Cape Town leg of The North Sea Jazz, and that’s Rashid Lombard. “In my youth I always had jazz musicians around me, so I’ve loved this music for a long time”, says Rashid. “Jazz was always in my life. I’ve owned a nightclub, but I knew I was going to organize a festival one day. That was my dream.”

Rashid traveled Europe working as a photographer for several South African magazines. During those years he visited a lot of jazz festivals. “But every year I kept returning to the Netherlands for the North Sea Jazz Festival. The thing I loved about it was that it was a multistage festival, but all under one roof. I always thought that was a very good set-up for a festival in South Africa. That country was very violent in those years, and if you organize a festival over the city, it can be dangerous for some. By putting it all under one roof, you provide safety.” After the1998 festival, Rashid walked up to Theo to share his dream.

The Dutch director gave his business card and asked Rashid to send him a fax. Theo: “It was at the end of the festival, so you tend to be a bit tired then. It didn’t really matter to me if it was Cape Town or any other city, if you want to set up a project like this, you need someone you can rely on, someone who’s serious.” And Rashid was. He stalked Theo with e-mails and faxes trying to get his attention. Eventually Theo went over to South Africa in January’99 to talk to the government and sponsors. Theo: “But I didn’t get the feeling that they really wanted the festival. They where sceptical ‘cause people tried projects like this before, and it always failed.” But Rashid and Theo went through with the program. Rashid: “Theo gave me a challenge: I had to organize a South African stage at the festival in The Hague in ‘99. I think that was like a test or something, ‘cause after that night Theo came up to me and said: ‘We’ve got ourselves a festival in Cape Town!’ I was really happy when he said that.”

Theo: “That night was broadcast live on South Africa television, which helped us a lot. When we came back at the end of ’99, everybody was really enthusiastic!”

The first festival was held at the Good Hope Centre in 2000. At first the Dutch organized just about everything, but five years later almost everything is in South African hands.Lombard says: “I’m really proud we pulled this off! No one thought we could do it.” The festival moves to the Convention Centre this year, because the old venue became too small. Rashid: “What we have to do now, is market this festival as an event you can’t miss. People don’t necessarily come here for the program, but just because it’s the place to be!”

Rashid has a special philosophy when it comes down to putting together the program. “Fifty percent of our artists are from Africa, that’s because a lot of the people that come to our festival are international visitors, and they can see the big names in their own country. We want to serve them with some real African jazz. But off course a lot our audience are from Africa as well, so the other half of the program are international artists. This way we also treat our artists equal, and that’s good for the South African music industry.” Headliners for this year’s festival are: Angie Stone, Abdullah Ibrahim, Stanley Clarke and Miriam Makebe.

One of the reasons of the big success of this Capetonian jazz festival is that fact that it’s being held in Cape Town. Theo: “I love this city and I know for sure that a lot of people combine the festival with a vacation in South Africa, because they want to see the country. They do a safari through the country first, and then come down for the festival in Cape Town.”

The contract between the Dutch and the South African festival ends this year, but Theo has no doubt about it continuing. Theo: “We still have to talk about this, but I’m very positive.”