Festival to mix ’business’ with pleasure

Inspiration, fun on Christmas Eve in Keiskammahoek

WITH a mission to plough back by promoting local economic development and youth empowerment in the rural Keiskammahoek community, black youth-owned company Mpiko will host the first Keiskammahoek Dec 24 Music and Art Festival.

This will be the first time that residents can spend Christmas Eve being entertained with live music and dance, courtesy of local musicians. The festival promises a fun-filled day for the entire family.

Children will be able to enjoy activities such as quad biking, face painting and jumping castles.

There will also be food, clothing and jewellery stalls.

Port Elizabeth’s Sdudla Noma 1000 will be joined by local artists who will entertain the crowd.

The event started off as a small annual picnic on December 16.

The main source of funding was the sale of the hometown-branded Keiskammahoek T-shirts, which were produced and sold by the founders of the festival.

Mpiko founder and coordinator Viwe Mkiva said the picnics were the biggest gathering of their nature in the town and the response was overwhelming.

They had now decided to move the event to Christmas Eve as many people were still at their workplaces outside the small area on the 16th.

He said the core reason for the event was to serve as a focal point of networking with some of the successful individuals from the community on all aspects of living in the society – youth development programmes, local economic development, businesses, education, employment, women and child abuse campaigns and fighting crime and corruption, as well as improving the lives of the poor.

“Keiskammahoek is a very small rural town with few opportunities to better the lives of our people.

“Most of our educated and successful individuals are working and running businesses in the big cities around the country.

“However, by December 24 they have usually returned home for the holidays.”

A slot during the festival has been allocated to discussion panels on some of the issues faced in the village.

These panels will be conducted by a municipal official and speakers from Keiskammahoek, including Jogi Nonkwe, Sikhumbuzo Noche and Dr Zingisa Kwinana.

Mpiko has identified 20 families who will receive Christmas food parcels on the day. The festival will also give party packs to 500 children at the festival, which have been donated by local spaza shops.

The event will kick off at noon in the local sports field.

Tickets start from R30. Festivalgoers can bring cooler boxes. No children will be allowed after 6pm.