MAKHANDA - The National Arts Festival is underway despite mounting service delivery woes.
Makhanda faces water shortages, power outages, and ongoing protests.
Festival organisers insist this is nothing new and assure art lovers the show will go on.
CEO Monica Newton said they are well-equipped.
"Well, every event comes with its own challenges and of course, we work very closely with our municipality to make sure that we have the best possible services for artists and guests during the festival.
“We've been dealing with water issues since 2016, so we're pretty good at it. We've dealt with stage six load shedding, we're pretty good at it and of course, we are citizens of the town, we are residents in the city.
“So we have a program with the Social Employment Fund of about 1,600 people working with us throughout the year to fix potholes, repair public spaces and public buildings, grow food gardens and we're doing some really interesting things with recycled waste and creating new products.
“We're here all around, we're investors in the city and just because something has some challenges, it doesn't mean that you pack up and you leave. You double down and you invest and you're part of solving the problem."