Ten thousand companies have filed for bankruptcy in Germany in the past six months and millions of Americans have lost their jobs in the US.

Yet this week in Grahamstown thousands of people have spent freely at the box office, guesthouses, market stalls and restaurants.

“What’s happening at the Festival flies in the face of the trend,” says Patrick Lavery, chief

Grahamstown's railway line marks the division between its residents. Two different classes of people and two different worlds exist on either side. This is a case that's representative of South Africa at large and the poverty that we have become immune to must be highlighted. This is the aim of Blood Diamonds, as explained by producer Brett Bailey.

Artreach is a programme run by the National Arts festival that takes the theatre to hospitals, prisons and clinics. Inmates of the Grahamstown Correctional Service had the pleasure of seeing the show Road to Success. Actors took great joy in performing to such a responsive audience.

A funeral, a day at the market, a young minister and a lonely pig –step into the Rhini photographic exhibition by township artists.

Medium-sized photographs on black mounts line the brick walls of a room in the Egazini Centre, captions in both isiXhosa and English underneath each.

My life on the streets of Grahamstown is always the same: violent.”

As the wind whips through the long tunnel, you can almost hear the whistle of a train long past. Barbed wire lies bundled on the platform and groupings of crushed glass shimmer in the morning rays.

Driving through the streets of Grahamstown, after seeing Blood Diamonds, you will see the people from your car: the people down the length of High Street, packing up their unsold goods, preparing themselves for the night, plastic bags sheltering them from the elements, uncertainty colouring what tomorrow might bring, a fire punctuating the evening.

As the wind whips through the long tunnel, you can almost hear the whistle of a train long past. Barbed wire lies bundled on the platform and groupings of crushed glass shimmer in the morning rays. The space is quiet, somewhat eerie in its desertion. It speaks of a loss, a divide, of an often forgotten colonial past.

The Historical Grahamstown Cathedral has opened its doors to traditional African music instruments. The Anglican Church congregation sing along to the sound of the marimbas which are played by the boys from the Eluxolweni Shelter for Street Children.