Shangano Arts fest preps gather momentum

ORGANISERS of the Shangano Arts Festival say preparations for this year’s 15th edition of the fete in Hwange have begun with the focus being promotion and nurturing of talent from marginalised communities.

The festival, which includes disciplines such as theatre, music, dance, poetry and puppetry, among others, will run from November 25 to 28.

It will be held under the theme Unlocked at three different venues, Hwange Little Theatre, Dinde and Matetsi Grounds.

Shangano Arts Festival director Petros Ndhlovu told NewsDay Life & Style that they had identified young women and boys through outreach talent search programmes to take part at this year’s fete.

“The preparations for this year’s 15th edition of Shangano Arts Festival in Hwange have begun and we are almost set.

We also have artists with disabilities that will be performing. Some will face the audience for the first time,” he said.

Ndhlovu said they chose artists from marginalised communities as they felt they had been left out in many programmes and they needed exposure.

“Young artists from rural communities have been left out on so many programmes. We also realised that few artists in rural communities can afford smartphones to participate in online or virtual activities,” he said.

“Our theme is Unlocked, we feel we are unlocked from COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns as we could not do much these previous two years in terms of performances. We resorted to virtual activities, hence this time we are unlocked. We are happy as we are going to have live performances with an audience watching.”

Ndhlovu said the festival would have different activities with the official launch set to have live performances, exhibitions by children and young people.

“On day two, we will have a workshop for young women covering arts management, leadership and gender-based violence. Day two and three will be done in Dinde and Matetsi rural communities,” he said.

“We will also have a community engagement, where local artists in those communities will get a chance to perform. A theatre performance will be done by Shangano Theatre in engaging communities on human-wildlife conflicts.”

Ndhlovu said arts lovers should look forward to performances from Pezhuba, Vostile, Chenjelani, Moreblessing, Sis Wothando, MtakaGogo, Percy Ncube and Boomslang, among others.