admin
The competition seeks to promote young untrained performers in the country through live performances.
The director of Amakhosi, Cont Mhlanga, said the competition was not confined to Bulawayo youths only but the entire nation.
“We call upon all young people across the country below the ages of 19 to come and register for this year’s edition. Registration is free and so is admission till the first of November when events start to attract a cover charge,” said Mhlanga.
Performances are in drama, singing, dancing, poetry and junior modelling and as per tradition, the event series will run every weekend for 20 weeks till 15 December.
The last edition saw 1 500 young performers register to showcase what they can do on stage and a total of 17 000 Dreams to Fame fans visited the Amakhosi Cultural Centre to enjoy the popular live event series.
Mhlanga said finalists and winners get the Amakhosi Golden Awards presented by the sitting mayor of Bulawayo each year as a new tradition.
The tradition began last year when Mayor Councillor Thaba Moyo capped the finalists and winners for 2011.
He said for the first time, this year Dreams to Fame invites companies, organisations and individuals who target young adults to market their products and missions to come forward and place information tables and sales booths every Saturday.
The competition has school-going children at heart with school holiday performance arts workshops for kids and students running every weekend from 10am to 1pm. Each child will be expected to pay $2 to register for the workshop.
This year’s edition has also introduced a new product for artistes and groups who need to have a promotional live DVD of their work produced to book to have it filmed before the Dreams To Fame audiences for a fee.
Dreams To Fame is an Amakhosi brand that aims to provide a free platform to aspiring artistes to showcase what they would have created to the public for twenty weeks in summer, running from August to December each year. The aspiring artistes use the platform to take constructive criticism to work on their creations week after week to grow themselves.
It is also an audience building programme for the arts that encourages the responsible consumption and enjoyment of arts and cultural products by the young generation of our society while developing a strong sense of confidence, freedom of choice and expression in young people.
The programme is produced and managed by Amakhosi Arts Academy students as part of their events and arts management training.
Online Reporter