The Sunday Mail
Prince Mushawevato
Things appear to be shaping up at the Harare International Festival of the Arts (Hifa) with exactly 71 days to go before this year’s six-day fiesta kicks-off. Has Hifa regained its proper footing?
The revered week-long festival, Zimbabwe’s biggest arts fete, did not take place last year due to financial constraints and donor fatigue, which according to organisers “emanated mainly from the then ongoing recession worldwide”.
But it appears this year’s six-day arts gala dubbed “the flagship of the 2017 edition” is back on course. Organisers are calling it the “flagship” as “Hifa takes place throughout the year”.
Indications are that a sizeable chunk of ground pertaining to the 17th edition of Hifa, which will run from May 2 to May 7, 2017, has already been covered. A-grade acts are expected to be part of the full event.
Tafadzwa Simba, Hifa’s associate executive director notes this year’s flagship edition of the festival will feature a plethora of the familiar as well as the new acts and concepts.
Hifa had adopted a new format in 2016, which saw organisers hosting monthly events as opposed to the customary and non-stop thrilling six-day show-piece.
“Preparations are at an advanced stage. The quantity and quality of applications from within Zimbabwe and all over the world has been tremendous. The festival’s artistic section is currently finalising adjudication of those applications and announcement of acts that will be part of this year’s programme will be done in the next few weeks,” he said.
“As announced in October 2015, the flagship of the 2017 edition will be in the six-day format. It will be running from May 2 to May 7. The other endeavours that began last year will continue alongside the week-long format,” explained Simba.
However, The Sunday Mail Leisure has been able to confirm that top international acts from countries like United States, China, Germany, India, Portugal, Botswana and South Africa will grace this year’s fiesta after having already signed contracts with Hifa.
Among them will be Jose de Eva, a seasoned tenor from Portugal, who will be in several collaborations with both local and fellow international classical singers during his Hifa stint.
Another noteworthy collaboration will be from an a cappella group from the United States by the name of Street Corner Symphony.
The Nashville, a Tennessee-based group, will be among the busiest at the festival with performances on the free stage on Harare’s First Street as well as off-site workshops and performances for vulnerable communities.
Combining the power of voice-only performance with the appeal of both classic and contemporary music, Street Corner Symphony will provide vocalised instrumentation that will certainly mesmerise audiences from across the globe.
“Collaboration and work-shopping will again be a mainstay of the festival. There will also be a focus on presenting work in venues and styles that are fresh and innovative, as will be the case with the comprehensive dance programme, presented by Stanbic Bank,” adds Simba.
How has Hifa manoeuvred around financial constraints that greatly affected them last year?
The festival lost four corporate partners including Telecel, one of the biggest Hifa sponsors, over the years. But Simba says new and traditional corporate partners and sponsors have come through for Hifa, guaranteeing this year’s edition takes place.
And the general anticipation following thoroughness of preparations combined with “donor and sponsor enthusiasm” in the 17th edition will have interesting talking points. The 2015 edition only had a great opening and a well hyped closing act with much less in-between.
“There are both ‘new’ and ‘old’ partners from the corporate world, embassies and development agencies this year and each one of them is linked to a specific and different aspect of the packed programme,” said Simba without giving out much.
Hifa tickets will be sold at the usual points of sale at Avondale Shopping Centre as well as in the city centre via the Hifa Box Office, which has a new additional partner this year in the form of First Mutual Holdings.
Arts lovers can look forward to an early start to the weekend with Thursday, which will be known as NMB Bank Day, being the mark of the start of the weekend.
The weekend and the festival itself will be rounded off by what organisers have promised to be a memorable closing show on Old Mutual Day.
Dance pieces comprising classical and contemporary styles will be drawn from Zimbabwe and across the globe. Meanwhile, according to organisers, the cash shortages will not affect the smooth flow of business since the festival site will be wired up for paperless financial transactions.
On average, Southern Africa’s premier international festival welcomes artistes from more than 30 countries with more than 200 foreign artistes in attendance. A total of 1 328 artistes performed in 197 performances, which included 25 workshops and 23 collaborations in the last six-day edition with the most noted one being the collaboration between Zimbabwe’s own Hope Masike and legendary Malian Salif Keita.
