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Langalakhe Mabena
Tomorrow (1 June) Bulawayo will be celebrating 130 years of existence which will be hyped by cultural and artistic activities on the day, followed by more festivities which will run from 2 to 7 June under the Bulawayo Arts Festival (BAF) banner.
B-Metro compiled activities that will take place at the week-long festival.
1 June
The Bulawayo Day will be characterised by numerous activities with the most vital one being the Bulawayo Day Parade which will start at the City Hall Car Park at 10 am. At the same time, there will be a World Bicycle Day Commemoration which will start at the car park. Avid cyclists, skaters and stunt bikers are invited.
At 2pm, Indigenous Games Competitions will start at the City Hall Car Park. Some of the games that will be played are Umamtshayana, uMam25 and Instoro, among other traditional games.
Again, at 2pm at the same venue, there will be the KoNtuthu Legends Concert. Several talented local musicians and instrumentalists have been recruited to take to the centre stage as they will be singing cover songs of Bulawayo-bred music legends.
2 June
Those who are into Gospel music will be treated to the Gospel Explosion: Power of Praise which will start at 3pm at the Large City Hall. The gig will feature seasoned Gospel musicians including Loraine Maplanka Stot, Snow, Vocal Ex, among other Gospel outfits.
The official opening of the Bulawayo Arts Festival (BAF) will be held at Stanley Hall at 5:30 pm. At the event, Back Umfolosi will present the Kulture Kasi project.
3 June
On 3 June, there will be the Inaugural Inxwala Memorial Performance Lecture with Gogo Bekezela which will be held at MacDonald Hall from 10am. A dance workshop will be held at Stanley Hall at 10am, while the High School Spelling Bee will be held at Small City Hall at the same time.
4 June
Another Dance workshop will be held at Stanley Hall on 4 June from 10am. During the same time, the Schools Cultural Showcase will be happening at the Bulawayo Amphitheatre. At 3pm, there will be the I Wear Culture Exhibition and Documentary screening at the Small City Hall which will be an interesting session on the use of fashion and film to document the decorative ways, colours used, motifs, symbols, artefacts and sustainability fashions of 10 unique ethnic groups from Zimbabwe and two United Kingdom Ethnic Groups.
5 June
Inyathi Youth Centre will host the Youth Concert from 1pm.
7 June
Large City Hall will play host to the Imbokodo: Her Voice, Her Power Concert from 6pm. Some of the female creatives who will take to the stage include the multi-award winning Gospel Jazz songbird Vuyo Brown, Nkwali, Thandy Dhlana, hip- hop sensation Noluntu J, among others.
Online Reporter