ICA Live Art Festival returns to Cape Town’s streets, gardens and public spaces
This October, the Institute for Creative Arts (ICA) Live Art Festival returns for its eighth edition, with around 30 free performances and installations in Cape Town’s streets, gardens and public spaces until 18 October 2026.
The festival spans dance, theatre, visual art, music, architecture and performance. Much of the work is site-specific, made in response to the spaces, histories and communities around it. Audiences move through the city and encounter the work where it is made and presented.
Across the city
Eight routes connect various sites including Hiddingh Campus, the Company’s Garden, the Iziko Amphitheatre, Station Forecourt, St. George’s Mall, the Castle of Good Hope, 16 on Lerotholi Gallery and Guga S’thebe.
“Every site on the programme has its own rhythm, its own audiences, its own histories,” says ICA director, Professor Nomusa Makhubu. “The work is about listening to that context first and letting the art respond to what’s already there.”
The artists
The festival is curated by Themba Stewart and Luvuyo Equiano Nyawose.
Confirmed artists and practitioners include Vincent Mantsoe, Mandla Mbothwe, Mwenya Kabwe, Gavin Krastin, Auriol Hayse, Qondiswa James, Wezile Harmans, Oupa Sibeko, Lungiswa Plaatjies, Meghna Singh, Sbo Ndaba Dance and Wolff Architects.
A two-way exchange with Sweden
This year, the festival adds an exchange between South Africa and Sweden. Swedish live artist Mauritz Tistelo joins the Cape Town programme to work with local artists, and South African dancer Lorin Sookool takes up a reciprocal placement in Sweden.
“Lorin’s placement in Sweden matters just as much as Mauritz’s time here. What our artists bring back is as valuable as anything an international guest contributes on site,” says Prof. Makhubu.
Keynote: Aruna D’Souza
Critic and writer Aruna D’Souza will deliver this year’s keynote. Her 2024 book, Imperfect Solidarities, looks at artworks and practices that build solidarity without requiring one identity or community to be absorbed into another. At the festival, she will bring these questions into conversation with artists and collectives working amid social unrest and fragile democracies.
Free and open to all
As in previous editions, every performance is free. Because the festival is staged in public space, it reaches people beyond traditional arts audiences, including those who come for a specific work and those who come across one on their way through the city.
Follow the Institute for Creative Arts on Instagram and Facebook for festival updates.
