An afternoon downtown, a city full of surprises AND a double ticket to CONTRA to give away.
I almost forgot how much I love Joburg
Yesterday, I took the afternoon off and got on a bus.
When last did I do that? Maybe 20/25 years ago!?
The bus took me out of my Parktown North bubble and into downtown Jozi for the CONTRA Joburg media launch. Somewhere between artist studios, unexpected conversations and the wild creative energy of the city, I fell in love with Johannesburg all over again.
Honestly, I had almost forgotten how much I love it here. I blame the cocktail of that last Arctic spell that swept through Johannesburg, municipal inefficiency around every corner, and the mysterious smell permeating the Parktown North air (the same air I gulp in and out on my morning runs). Yoh! Jozi can wear you down.
It is mess and muck. It gives us plenty to complain about. But it is also pulsating with creativity, courage, cutting-edge cultural expression, community initiatives and collaboration.
Sometimes we just need to get out of our bubbles to remember that.
“Johannesburg is a city built from difference, but we don’t always create enough opportunities for those differences to encounter one another meaningfully.”
— Sara Hallatt, founder of CONTRA.Joburg
Taking an afternoon off
Our afternoon began at the beautiful Candice Berman Gallery, which I am embarrassed to admit is within walking distance of my home and which I had never visited.
We then headed into the city and on to Victoria Yards. Also a first for me. Also somewhere I have wanted to visit for years. Also mildly embarrassing. I am often so busy, like so many of us, doing my own work that I forget to stop and immerse myself in the work other people are doing here. Taking an afternoon off to do exactly that was the inspiration I didn’t know I needed.
A different way to meet Johannesburg
Sara Hallatt and the CONTRA team have carefully cultivated and intentionally woven together an experience for Joburgers that is not to be missed.
CONTRA is part open studio, part art fair and part city adventure. It is an invitation to hop on and off a bus, enter spaces you may never have known existed, meet artists where they work and encounter Johannesburg from a different angle and at a different pace.
This year’s theme is wonderfully simple:
Different is good.
For Sara, it is far more than a cheerful festival slogan.
“We may occupy the same city while living in completely separate worlds, divided by geography, history, race, class and access. Creative spaces can interrupt that. They allow us to meet through ideas, curiosity and shared experience.”
Across the weekend, galleries, studios and unexpected creative spaces will open their doors. Complimentary shuttles will carry visitors between the venues, allowing you to move at your own pace and follow your curiosity.
Sara says her favourite thing about CONTRA is that it gives us permission to be nosy.
“You can enter an artist’s studio, see unfinished work, notice the experiments and abandoned ideas, and ask how something was made. It removes some of the distance and formality that can make the art world feel intimidating.”
And there is no single correct way to experience the festival.
You may arrive for the art and find yourself discovering a building, listening to music, joining a workshop, having an unexpected conversation or meeting a part of Joburg you never knew existed.
Everyone creates their own version of CONTRA.
Victoria Yards, DESE (how stunning is this little spot?)
Slow down. Look again.
Johannesburg is so often spoken about as a problem to be solved, or somewhere to move through quickly and cautiously.
But step inside its buildings and you encounter another city.
A city filled with artists, makers, entrepreneurs, communities and extraordinary creative energy.
Sara’s hope is that visitors will slow down and look again:
“I hope visitors look up at the architecture, speak to somebody they would not ordinarily meet and become curious about what is happening behind doors they may have passed a hundred times.”
She is not suggesting that we romanticise Joburg or ignore its challenges. She is inviting us to engage with it more fully. To leave a little less afraid, a little more connected and far more curious.
These spaces are making meaning and making story: two of my favourite things.
You will remember how much you love art, creativity and this complicated city all over again. That, I can promise you.
POSTCARD for CONTRA
I was privileged to create a postcard for the media launch, featuring a beautiful photograph of the Johannesburg skyline by my friend and local photographer Dom Barnardt (you can buy this print).
JOZI is beautiful.
JOZI is a mess. And still, we CREATE!
“What does Jozi give you?
And what are you giving Jozi?
What are we sowing into Jozi?
Across the image, I asked: What if we saw Jozi not only for what it is, but for what we are making it?
It is a question I have continued to carry. What are we creating here? What are we cultivating? Where are we choosing courage, contribution and collaboration instead of simply standing at a distance and complaining?
These are also the kinds of questions at the heart of my work with Do The Heart Work and African Journal Club… creating places, online and in person, where people across Africa can pause, write, reflect, make meaning and meet themselves on the page.
Artists take uncertainty, frustration, history, joy and pain and make something from it: often something that allows another person to feel less alone.
It was a genuine privilege to contribute a small part to an event that honours that work.
Primal Spirits Distillery
Still in the City Contest: An art and design competition where local creatives submit bottle labels and artwork.
Come if you’re hungry for…
I asked Sara to finish this sentence:
Come to CONTRA on 29 and 30 August if you are hungry for…
“…surprise, connection and a version of Johannesburg that cannot be experienced from the outside—a city filled with art, imagination and people who refuse to let it be reduced to a single story.”
An Immersive
2 Day
Visual Arts Experience
10:00-17:00
29 & 30 Aug 2026
I’m giving away a double ticket
I would love to give two of you the opportunity to experience CONTRA for yourselves.
To enter: Share this newsletter or one of my CONTRA posts with someone who would love the experience. OR Send me a screenshot OR TAG ME on INSTA as proof that you shared it. (I’ll choose one person to receive a double ticket.)
Perhaps this is your invitation to take an afternoon off, leave your usual bubble and see Johannesburg again.
CONTRA.Joburg takes place on Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 August 2026, from 10am to 5pm.
Tickets start at R150, children under 18 enter free, and complimentary shuttles will run between participating venues.
Get more info & buy tickets here!
Different is good.
And Joburg, mess, muck, beauty and all, is still something to behold.
WITH LOVE, ANT
PS: For the next two weeks (until 2 Sept) - take 10% off my newest handmade leather journals (tan or choc brown in A4 and A5). Use the code: 10OFF
