OPINION: Standard Bank and Johannesburg’s Easter festivals
Easter is rugby festival season in Joburg, and the excitement is building. The three Standard Bank Festivals have been around for quite a long time now – it’s the 41st edition of the Saints Festival, KES has been around since 2002, and St John’s is calling this year their 28th.
The numbers have been blurred by the two Covid years – 2020 and 2021 – when the festivals didn’t happen, although the Saints Sports Festival was staged in 2021 when it featured seven-a-side rugby.
Be that as it may, the rich history that exists, and the traditions that have been developed over the years, guarantee the ongoing popularity of the events, despite the plethora of other rugby activities that are now scheduled at a time when, in the old days, the Easter Festivals were pretty much the only things going on.
In the beginning, the Joburg festivals used to attract the cream of South African rugby schools. Many of those go elsewhere these days, but that doesn’t matter all that much. The games played have shown down the years that many schools play attractive rugby, and the gate-takings prove that the crowds will flock to watch them.
It all began at St Stithians back in 1984. The college turned 30 that year. A rugby festival is generally the cornerstone of such celebratory programmes, and there and then, the St Stithians Easter Rugby Festival was born. The brains’ trust at the time consisted of the headmaster, Mark Henning, the master in charge of rugby, Tim Clifford, and the chairperson of the Parents’ Association, Colin Hall. Sadly, all three are no longer with us.
The three men had different motivations. At the time, St Stithians, and the other private schools, had begun to enrol black boys, a move that wasn’t welcomed by the rugby authorities. Those players weren’t eligible for provincial selection, and schools with black players weren’t allowed to enter league competitions. Henning wanted all his boys to have every opportunity to perform, so he decided to use the idea of the festival to let the black players at all the formerly white schools who had them shine on a bigger stage.
Hall, the businessman, saw it as an opportunity to raise the profile of the school and get it noticed on the national stage. Clifford, the rugby man, wanted to see the best schools and players play at St Stithians and to test his team against them.
And so it started. Ten schools played in that first festival: Alexandra High, Bishops, Capricorn, Kearsney (now also home to a long-standing Easter Festival, backed by Standard Bank, which began in 2008), King Edward VII School, Potch Boys’ High, Pretoria Boys High, St Andrew’s College, St John’s, and St Stithians.
The words “like-minded schools,” appeared in the first festival programme, and they would be used to describe who was invited – to all the festivals – from then on. But, in the beginning, they had a more serious and sinister meaning. What they were talking about were schools that would be happy to play against players of colour, who would field boys who treated them with dignity and respect. That wasn’t always the case in those days.
It was decided at the outset that it would be a festival. There would be no overall winner, no tournament team would be selected, and no man of the match awards would be given. The idea was to match schools which didn’t normally meet during the season. Those basic principles were adopted at the other festivals too, and they are still in place, nominally anyway.
One of the rules of the Saints Festival was that schools would be invited for two years at a time and then sit out. This was done so that the net could be spread as wide as possible. St John’s was one of the original schools, but they had to stand down after two years and again four years later, after their second stint there. By then, the value of an early-season festival had become evident, and the people at St John’s asked, why not have their own festival, where their boys can play every year? So, they did that in 1995. Any fears there would not be enough good rugby teams or enough spectators to go around were soon laid to rest.
King Edward VII School celebrated its Centenary in 2002, and it decided to stage a rugby and hockey festival to mark it. The idea was that it would be a once-off, and KES had committed to go back to the Saints Festival in 2003. It was such a success, however, that it was decided to make it an annual event. There were u16 teams at the 2003 festival and, since then, it has featured first hockey and rugby teams and has been a third sell-out Joburg Easter feast every year.
From the earliest days, there has been a commercial aspect to the festivals. All sorts of businesses recognised the marketing opportunities presented by having so many of the top schools with their supporters at a single venue. There have been advertising and activations at all of them. And over-arching them all, a title sponsor.
Standard Bank has been that for the last 14 years. The role of sponsorship in school sport can be tricky. A sponsor wants a return on its investment, naturally, but I’ve always believed that there’s more to it than the numbers. At the end of the day, it has to be about the development of the children and the game.
School rugby festivals are valuable properties – I hate that term – because, as Standard Bank puts it “(they) give a glimpse into one of the most loyal community sets, from students, parents, old boys (alumni) and coaches, all the way to medics, matrons, and groundsmen. While the heart of the tournament is centred on rugby and promoting true sportsmanship, it is also an event that brings together communities and families.”
I’ve heard the organisers at all three Joburg festivals call the Standard Bank people “part of the family”. It isn’t just a “give money and measure the return” deal.
That’s the best type of sponsorship. Good for them.
There are tasty clashes on the cards at all three venues over the weekend, and I’ve often bewailed the fact that I can’t be in two or three places at the same time to watch them. SuperSport Schools has changed that now, of course.
It’s the Easter rugby festival season in Joburg, and I can’t wait.
These views are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of SuperSport Schools.
