Arts writer
THE Heal the Hood Project has reached their 16th anniversary. The country’s longest running hip hop festival is dubbed the African Hip Hop Indaba “ refreshed by Sprite”. This event continues to be a platform for positive expression for the youth across South Africa. The organisers have now found a new home for the showcase at The Grace Performing Arts Centre in Brentford Street, Beaconvale, Parow.
This year’s grand finale will be preceded by the AHHI second annual Hip Hop Lecture Series, in partnership with SAE Institute Cape Town, on Saturday October 17 at the SAE campus in Woodstock. Then on Saturday October 31, the much-anticipated AHHI finals take place at Grace Performing Arts Centre. Stay tuned for more information regarding tickets to the finals, which will be available on Computicket.
The finals will boast an array of the best dance crews and performance artists from across South Africa and to date there are four dance crews from Zimbabwe registered to compete. In an effort to create a spectacular event that caters to all generations of the hip hop arts community the program has been shortened for the finals by selecting the top 16 crews and solos artists across all dance categories which include kwaito, house, popping, krump, breakdancing and nu school. The prelim eliminations for the Western Cape will take place earlier in the day.
A market area and main stage will showcase the best hip hop acts by established and upcoming performance artists and DJ’s. While, the outside areas will have interactive graffiti walls and installations with some of Cape Town’s premier graffiti writers. Cypher sessions and chill zones including food trucks and pop up stalls will form part of the market zone with live screenings happening from the main stage.
Along with the new venue, event-goers can arrive in style with Uber offering a first ride free up to R200 to the African Hip Hop Indaba. To claim a free ride, download the Uber app and sign up with the code AHHI2015.
l Information: 021 706 0481, 071 836 3517, 082 474 4750. Like the Heal the Hood Project Facebook