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Vrystaat Arts Festival

08 July 2022

The Vrystaat Arts Festival celebrates its twenty-second birthday this year, a remarkable achievement! After two challenging years of lockdown restrictions, the festival team is excited to work towards various in-person events again, including the first ever mini-MARK in July, the traditional arts festival with all the familiar faces in October, and the second instalment of the festival's classical music festival, Vrystaat Klank & Klassik, in November.

From 12-16 July, the festival will launch the inaugural Mini-MARK on the Bloemfontein campus of the University of the Free State (UFS). This smaller arts and crafts market will mostly be concentrated around the Callie Human Hall and the Exam Rooms on the UFS-campus and will involve only curated, unique, handmade, high quality, authentic South African products and food stalls, and an open stage for entertainment.

The mini-MARK will also include a selection of theatre, music, and dance productions. A definite highlight on the theatre program is the debut comedy, Laerskool Noord, with Margit Meyer-Rödenbeck, Marion Holm, and Ilne Fourie. Something special on the menu for the little ones is Liewe Heksie en die Rolskaate. Several local musicians will perform at the Vulture Club during the festival week and the contemporary dance production, POP, with Bloemfontein-based dancer, Thami Majela, and French choreographer, Matthieu Nieto will also be on the stage.

Two productions hosted in collaboration with the UFS’s Drama and Theatre Arts Department are The dressing room and Hoe Later, Hoe Kwater. The dressing room is based on the real antics of backstage life during the production of a community theatre musical. The show is not a musical, but a very relatable comedy to anyone who has been through the hustle of being backstage during a production.

Hoe Later, Hoe Kwater is an Afrikaans translation by Pierre van Pletzen of Michael Pertwee and John Chapman's Holiday Snap, and stars Barend Kriel, Mark Dobson, Jané Schnetler, DJ Kruger, Danielle Doubell, Amira-Xandria van Biljon, Paquot.

From 2-8 October 2022, the customary Vrystaat Arts Festival, with a full program including theatre productions, literature festival, film festival, visual and experimental art, as well as a much larger arts market, will also be presented on the UFS campus. Keep an eye out in the press and the arts festival's social media platforms for more information on the October program.

Entrance tickets to the festival grounds and to the theatre productions are already for sale at https://www.webtickets.co.za/.

For more information about this year's Vrystaat Arts Festival, please email mark@vrystaatkunstefees.co.za or alternatively send a WhatsApp to 063 584 4379.

News Archive

Quadriplegic doctor obtains degree against all odds

2016-11-25

Description: Dr Swartbooi CUADS Tags: Dr Swartbooi CUADS

Dr Swartbooi faces each day with vigour and
resilience. Dr Swartbooi analyses images on
a screen in the Clinical Imaging Laboratory
at Universitas Academic Hospital.
Photo: Oteng Mpete

Life’s defining moments are when perseverance is rewarded. It is not easy to swim against the tide. However, for Dr Ambrotius Swartbooi from the University of the Free State’s Department of Clinical Imaging Sciences, it became his moment of glory. In 2006, Dr Swartbooi suffered a spinal injury from a near-fatal car accident which left him paralysed and a quadriplegic.

The strength to carry on

“You have one of two choices:
to lie down and give up,
or to pick yourself up”
—Dr Swartbooi

Dr Swartbooi spent close to six months, recovering from his injuries. “You have one of two choices: to lie down and give up or to pick yourself up,” said Dr Swartbooi. He would inspire other patients with similar injuries to reintegrate into society despite their new-found circumstances.

Fortunately, not all was doom and gloom; in 2007 Dr Swartbooi got married, and his wife has supported and inspired him to continue pursuing his dreams. Dr Swartbooi completed his undergraduate medical degree at the UFS, and in 2014 decided it was time to complete his studies and pursued an MMed specialising in Diagnostic Radiology.

To treat or not treat: that is the question

After all his trials and tribulations, Dr Swartbooi will be receiving his MMed Diagnostic Radiology degree at the UFS Summer Graduation ceremony in December 2016. His research focuses on intracranial aneurysm size interventions. He discovered that there were discrepancies between international standards for intervention and African standards for intervention.

The research inspects what should be treated and how it should be treated. He found there was a gap in African literature into the size of aneurysms.

Champion of survival: Where to from here?

“That’s a good question,” said Dr Swartbooi. “Slowly from here. I still need to work on getting my full accreditation from the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA).” He plans to continue fuelling his passion for teaching. “There is no place better to teach than at an academic hospital.”

Dr Swartbooi commended the efforts of the Centre for Universal Access and Disability Support (CUADS), which assisted him in writing all his exams. “I want to be able to make a fulfilling and lasting impact on people but also to give the best medical service that I can,” concluded Dr Swartbooi.

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