26 May 2025
Performers from inner-city youth development centre Dlala Nje perform a cheerleading routine at ‘Hey Hillbrow! Let’s Dlala!’. Photos: Ihsaan Haffejee
Johannesburg artists filled the streets of Hillbrow with music, dance and theatre performances as part of the sixth ‘Hey Hillbrow! Let’s Dlala!’ public street arts festival over the weekend.
The parade started at the iconic Windybrow Theatre Complex and made its way around Hillbrow, an inner-city neighbourhood that faces many challenges, including dilapidated infrastructure, hijacked buildings, crime and widespread drug use.
For a few days every year, the public arts festival takes over the streets, intending to reimagine the future of inner city neighbourhoods.
An artist performs against the backdrop of the Ponte Tower.
“Hey Hillbrow! is a celebration of the possibilities that public performance brings to public space — to spread energy, laughter, surprise and provocation, and to make visible the wonderful work that several organisations and individuals have continued to do in impacting inner-city communities and spaces,” said Bongiwe Potelwa from The Market Theatre.
This year’s edition was a collaboration between The Windybrow Arts Centre and local youth organisations, many based in the inner city. The festival performances, featuring over 300 artists, were curated by seasoned artists Tamzyn Botha and Daniel Buckland under the theme Time travel through dreaming.
A performer hangs off the top of a building in an acrobatic performance.
Members of the African Reclaimers Organisation were also part of the festival, with costumes and artwork on display made from recycled materials.
Students from the Johannesburg Society for the Blind performed a theatre piece showcasing the festival’s commitment to inclusiveness.
Young performer Nkosilathi Ndebele is seen during a street performance in Hillbrow during the parade.
“The arts isn’t about trying to make children into artists, but teaching children how to problem solve. And as you can see at this festival, young people, adults and everyone in between, they take agency from this. I think as soon as we can give people agency, it can be the start of something great,” said festival curator Tamzyn Botha.
A musician from the Ezase Vaal Brass Band blows his trumpet against the backdrop of Hillbrow to mark the start of the parade.
Botha also runs Shade, a self-funded community art project that does weekly multidisciplinary sessions for children in Brixton. She said that community-based grassroots organisations are fighting a constant battle for funding and survival.
“The dream is for all of these organisations to come into the same room so that we can collectively fight the battles together and work towards a more sustainable future for the arts sector,” said Botha.
Young performers from the Gcebile Dlamini Foundation, a community-based arts organisation that runs programmes for young people and people with disabilities.
Gerard Bester, head of the Windybrow Arts Centre, emphasised the importance of the arts.
“I think creativity and imagination are vital. If we don’t imagine ourselves in places that take us by surprise, then there’s no hope. And so the arts give us that. The arts give us the way to imagine ourselves beyond where we find ourselves, and I think that’s why we do what we do.”
Residents of Hillbrow came out onto their balconies to view the parade as it passed by.