AN INTERNATIONAL arts festival is on the cards for the bustling border town of Beitbridge with organisers imploring local and foreign artists to register for the three-day event.
Own Correspondent
Known as the Beitbridge International Festival of Arts (Bifa), the event is slated for October 24 to 26.
Nkululeko Nkala, one of the organisers of Bifa told Southern Eye yesterday that the festival will run under the theme “Big Art, Small Town”, in reference to the border town which links Zimbabwe with South Africa.
Nkala said the chosen theme will celebrate, appreciate and encourage artistic excellence in all the works to be presented during the festival. “The festival is a multi-disciplinary, multi-arts participatory festival which seeks to attract the most exciting young artists, performers and performing companies from across the globe,” he said.
Bifa will feature music, dance, lifestyle (fashion and modelling), and the spoken word, theatre and arts workshops. Activities and performances will take place indoors and on open spaces around the town in order to get more participation by many local people.
“Most events will be free of charge, but some will have a small entrance fee, with concessions for young people and older citizens,” Nkala said.
He added the organisers had recognised the excitement that surrounds the arts and the ability of the arts to shift perceptions and influence people, and the need for an arts festival that will promote the border town by creating an annual festival firmly rooted in Beitbridge.
