Surf’s up! Celebrate summer at 2020 Wavescape Surf and Ocean Festival

The Wavescape festival is strongly focused on conservation awareness, ocean activism and community upliftment. Image: Adobe Stock

The festival, to run in Cape Town from 4 to 12 December, promises an excellent line-up of online and hybrid ocean-conscious events.

Presented by surf and skate brand Vans, it will again include the open-air film screenings and film nights of past years, as well as exciting new additions like a drive-in surf movie night, a surfboard art exhibition, webinars, a photographic exhibition and an Instagram auction.

17TH EDITION OF WAVESCAPE FESTIVAL

What began as a celebration of surfing through stories of exotic destinations and secret waves, the festival, now in its 17th year, has grown into an eco-centric fight for a better environment.

It featured talented creative and scientific minds from around the country who used the ocean as their muse to advocate change, festival director Shani Judes said.

“Each year, our festival showcases amazing people, their acts of kindness, talent, and genuine love for the ocean. Pollution and global warming affect us all, but we can all help effect that change.”

MOVIES, ONLINE TALKS, SLIDE SHOWS AND MORE

The 2020 festival sees a partnership with The Galileo Open Air Cinema, bringing a welcome physical element to the online and hybrid events required in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The revitalised line-up of events will include a combination of online and open-air film screenings with The Galileo, including a drive-in surf movie night in Constantia and an outdoor film evening at Kirstenbosch Gardens.

Guests can also enjoy online talks by ocean gurus from around the world in the flagship Slide Night.

The Oceans Alive Surf Night: Cape Town, Cold Water and Conservation is a new hybrid international event to be hosted at the Two Oceans Aquarium. It will feature some of the world’s most renowned surfers and scientists.

WAVESCAPE SUPPORTS LOCAL ARTISTS

Wavescape also collaborates with young South African artists and will partner with Cape Town illustrator Yay Abe who designed all the artwork for the 2020 festival using the theme of “adaptation”, as the world slowly moves towards a new normal.

Vans will donate 10 pairs of white sneakers that will be decorated by local artists and auctioned on Instagram during the festival. Brett Murray will design a surfboard for the surfboard art exhibition that has been streamlined into a one-off, one-of-a-kind artboard exhibition.

PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBIT

The Wavescape Surf and Ocean Festival will include an outdoor photographic exhibit presented by long-standing partner the Save Our Seas Foundation (SOSF), which supports shark conservation projects worldwide.

The exhibit, Wild Seas, was shot by National Geographic photographer Thomas Peschak and boasts the most iconic images from his 20-year journey of documenting the world’s oceans. The SOSF will also collaborate with local artist Chris Auret to create an ocean-conscious mural along the Sea Point promenade.

VIRTUAL SLIDE NIGHT AND OCEAN ACTIVISM

SOME MORE WAVESCAPE ACTION

Other features at the festival will include a virtual version of the festival’s flagship ocean evening of talks known as Slide Night. The platform will host local and international speakers, including renowned conservation and nature photographers Chris Burkard and Cristina Goettsch Mittermeier.

The Oceans Alive evening of ocean activism will be held in partnership with the Two Oceans Aquarium and Wesgro, and will host a discussion about Cape Town, Cold Water and Conservation with some of the top surfers and conservationists in the world.

The Wavescape Masterclass will be replaced in 2020 by Zag Shorts – a short film competition for aspiring surf and ocean filmmakers in collaboration with Zigzag Surfing Magazine. The short films will be screened at an awards ceremony on Friday 11 December at Jack Black’s Brewery.

There will also be a beach clean-up with Beach Co-op, a webinar on making the film industry and film set plastic-free with the Wesgro Film Promotion Unit and the Spike Swell Course (a virtual evening of wave science and forecasting with Spike from Wavescape).

WAVESCAPE EVENT LINE-UP

Friday 4 December: Drive-In surf movie at The Galileo in Constantia (limited tickets)
Saturday and Sunday 5-6 December: Online Film Festival (24-hour pass)
Saturday 5 December: Exhibition by Craig Cockcroft at The Shred
Sunday 6 December: Beach co-op mural, performance and beach clean-up.
Monday 7 December: Oceans Alive: evening of surfing and conservation with top surfers (Two Oceans Aquarium and online event)
Tuesday 8 December: Spike Swell Course: virtual evening of wave science and forecasting
Wednesday 9 December: Slide Night (online with speakers from South Africa and globally)
Thursday 10 December: Outdoor screening at Kirstenbosch at The Galileo (limited tickets)
Friday 11 December: Zag Shorts: Evening of 10 short surf films followed by Q&A with winners at Jack Black Brewery
Saturday 12 December: Online Film Festival (24-hour pass for an unlimited audience)