Bulawayo Arts Festival completes talent search tour

Langalakhe Mabena

As they prepare for the second edition of the Bulawayo Arts Festival (BAF), organisers have completed a talent scouting tour which was held in various cities and towns in Zimbabwe.

BAF is set to commence with the Bulawayo Day on June 1, which will be an introductory session of the festival starting from 2 to 5 June.

The festivity this year runs under the theme, We Own Winter (WOW).

Smaller cities and towns including Plumtree, Mutare, Gwanda, Gweru and Victoria Falls were encompassed so as to feature at this year’s edition of the vibrant youth festival.

Some acts which were chosen during the tour have started shooting pre-scenes that will feature on the festival virtually, and the process is said to be going on smoothly.

Raw talent from these remote areas is meant to be fused with urban (Bulawayo) creativity from music, dance, theatre, poetry, visual arts, photography and fashion, to grow the festival in diversity and inclusiveness of various crafts.

“In the countdown to Bulawayo Day on 1 June, BAF preparations are in full swing. The BAF team has been out and about on a talent scouting tour to some of Zimbabwe’s smaller cities and towns this past week.

“The mission was to include artistes from areas like Plumtree, Mutare, Gwanda, Gweru and Victoria Falls in the second edition of the vibrant young festival running from 2 to 5 June,” said BAF in a statement.

Due to Covid 19 and its restrictions, this year’s celebrations will be conducted in a hybrid “virtual-physical” production format so as to accommodate artistes and an estimated vast audience in Bulawayo and beyond.

“Live Covid-compliant physical performances in ‘the City of Kings’ by its artistes will be complemented with virtual performances of artistes from some of these remote areas (where talent was scouted), offered to the world via the internet,” reads the BAF statement.

The line-up for this year’s edition will be announced later this week.

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