NAMA award-winning dance group Elysium Magna Dance Theatre is launching the first ever Africa International Festival of All Arts (AFRIFAA), which is set to coincide with the Zimbabwe Culture Month in May.
Running under the theme ‘diverse cultural colours: Africa together’ the festival will be held from May 26 to June 3 in the capital.
The inaugural festival will host galleries for painters, sculptors, fashion designers, dance ensembles, theatre groups, dance theatre groups, poets, comedians, chefs for African cuisines, musicians, art and craft, symposiums, workshops and pageantry among others.
About 21 country representatives have already submitted their entries for the AFRIFAA inaugural festival with Zambia having four entries, Malawi seven, Zimbabwe 18, Botswana one, South Africa 13, Cameroon three, Canada two, Togo three, DRC Congo six, Rwanda two, Namibia two, Portugal two, Benin one, France two, Ivory Coast one, Uganda one, Tanzania one, Senegal one, Cote Devo two, Gambia one, Mali one and Swaziland one.
The brains behind AFRIFAA, Hilary Greguor Indi, born Tafadzwa Tandi, said the festival’s principles are creativity that transcends textbook theories.
“With AFRIFAA being a brain child of Elysium, we do not follow textbook principles and we believe that creativity is boundless, that expression is different from person to person and entity to entity,”
“We believe in something that defies logic and that is what we want to bring to the people to show them that there is something that is beyond text theatre,” he said.
He went on to talk about how AFRIFAA will be different from all other arts festivals as he said it encompasses every discipline of artistes and creatives both established and new.
In setting up the festival, Indi said they are facing a big challenge when it comes to resources as most potential investors are hesitant.
“The biggest challenge is the lack of resources and the buy-in of entities that could finance us as most are hesitant because since HIFA there has not been anything that has really been that fired up like HIFA was,” he said.
“I do compliment the other festivals that have been happening but I want to bring something more challenging and bigger. I think most entities could be wondering if we will be able to pull it off but with the right support this is a small walk in the park and AFRIFAA will do so well as it is getting more and more entries by the day.