Chronicle Editor
Sunday Life Reporter
THE inaugural Bulawayo Arts Festival, meant to celebrate Bulawayo Day, will be held from 1-5 June.
The Bulawayo City Council last year in October declared 1 June Bulawayo Day, a day which will be set aside to commemorate the declaration of the city as a town in 1894 and will be marked by arts and cultural activities.
Bulawayo was declared a town by Dr Leander Starr Jameson on 1 June 1894 on the site of King Lobengula’s capital and subsequently attained city status in 1943. The city also had its first advisory board in 1894. The declaration of 1 June as Bulawayo Day was mainly influenced by a local arts and culture organisation, Nhimbe Trust, led by Joshua Nyapimbi, which also signed a memorandum of understanding with the local authority in 2015 for the establishment of a Bulawayo cultural policy. The local authority also declared that an arts festival week will be held annually from 1 to 5 June as part of the celebrations, where Nhimbe Trust will play the lead in organising the festival.
“The Bulawayo Arts festival will be held from 1-5 June 2020 under the theme “WOW” (short for We own Winter) as all activities will illuminate the usually not so active winter month in Zimbabwe. The celebration of Bulawayo Day and the hosting of the Bulawayo Arts Festival aims to enable local people and our global visitors to participate meaningfully in the cultural life of the city, and it provides an opportunity for Bulawayo to showcase its proud heritage, rich diversity, creative nature, resilience and majesty.
“This explosion of arts and culture will put Bulawayo on the global spotlight and encourage its tourism and business potential. From this proud history of African royalty dating back to and beyond Kings Mzilikazi and Lobengula, Bulawayo city is a creative capital in the Southern African region constantly churning out talent and arts products that have been consumed the world over,” said the organisers of the Bulawayo Arts Festival in a statement.
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