PREPARATIONS for the annual Bulawayo arts festival, Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo scheduled for September 26 to 30 are being stifled by resource deficiency.
The festival co-ordinators said they were struggling to get assistance.
The festival seeks to celebrate the diversity of cultures and creativity in music, film, spoken word, theatre, dance, literary arts and fashion.
Apart from the annual festival, Intwasa also runs a number of community initiatives for social change.
Festival director Raisedon Baya told NewsDay Life & Style that they were facing challenges preparing for the prestigious festival.
“The Intwasa festival preparations are not as smooth as we would want them to be because of challenges here and there. First is that we are organising an event after elections and, therefore, a lot of focus is on election outcome and planning after elections,” Baya noted.
They are struggling to get partners for the festival.
“You try to talk to partners to come on board, they tell you that they are trying to see where the country is going in terms of politics. People are unwilling to invest their resources in uncertain environments,” he said.
Despite the challenges, Baya, however, assured that people would experience a “quality festival”.
“Challenges aside, we are organising an event and we are running around to try and put together almost 24 activities that we are planning and hopefully all goes well,” he said.
The festival is set to feature the likes of Vusa Mkhaya, Jason Mphepo, Lady Tshawe and Agnes Ncube.
Some of the artists said they were excited and ready to deliver impressive performances at the festival.
“I am very excited because I have been out of it for a while, so this show will be fun for me,” Ncube said.
Said Tshawe: “I am excited, theatre is forever my first love. I get to do what I love while entertaining people.”
This year, the festival will be held at three venues, Bulawayo National Art Gallery, the Public Library and the Bulawayo Amphitheatre.
