Infecting the City is the longest running public arts festival in South Africa. It brings free, socially-engaged performance and visual art into the public spaces of Cape Town and Mbombela. The festival has been held annually since 2007, and in 2019 will transition to being held every two years. Infecting the City features South African and international artists. It aspires to bring the extraordinary to everyday places, and make public space genuinely welcoming for the public.
In South Africa, the legacy of apartheid excludes many from accessing artistic spaces such as theatres and galleries. Infecting the City aims to bring socially-engaged, dynamic art into inclusive public spaces, at the same time reinventing these spaces as welcoming and imaginative. Infecting the City gives voice to diverse artists from South Africa and around the world, and allows audiences to experience their city in a new way.
ITC commissions and invites works in dance, visual art, music, poetry, and more. The audience walks from one art installation or event to the next along a fixed route around Cape Town. The Cape Town programme holds day and evening performances, and Mbombela only day-time. Although designed as a fixed route, the festival is also built to be happened upon – allowing unsuspecting passers-by to become audience members.
Infecting The City Cape Town has grown each year, attracting more artists and larger audiences. From when it began in 2007, ITC Cape Town has grown from 10 productions to 40, from 50 artists to over 300, and from an audience size of 5,000 to over 38,000. In 2014, ITC expanded to include the city of Mbombela, Mpumalanga. In Mbombela, Infecting the City holds workshops with local artists during the year to help prepare their twenty artistic productions for the festival.
As of 2019, Infecting the City Cape Town will take place every two years instead of annually.
