Chronicle Editor
Bongani Ndlovu, Showbiz Correspondent
AFTER recording a high turnout at the just ended Intwasa Extra festival, organisers say they feel encouraged to hold another edition this year.
Intwasa Extra, an offshoot of the Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo, was held last month to keep people entertained during the festive season while also catering for those, especially diasporans, who would have missed the main festival that was held in September.
The arts extravaganza, held over four days, ran under the theme “Celebrating a New Era” and ended on New Year’s Eve.
It featured dance, theatre, poetry, comedy and music as part of the entertainment. A paying audience has been one of the biggest headaches for Intwasa organisers, but the hosting of Intwasa Extra gave them hope as it was highly supported by a paying audience.
Nkululeko Nkala, Intwasa spokesperson, said: “Intwasa Extra was a resounding success judging by the number of people who paid for the various shows at the festival.
“We’d over half the house on average at our theatre shows at the Bulawayo Theatre. This is very encouraging and with better advertisement, we believe we could’ve had more people attending. So for this year, definitely Intwasa Extra is on the cards.”
During Intwasa Extra, theatre shows such as Ihloka and the Arrangement almost had a full house while the Comedy Night and Women, Words & Wine that featured Tariro NeGitare and Thandy Dhlana-Jele recorded high numbers. Nkala said the response from the public showed that quality family
entertainment was needed in Bulawayo during the festive season.”We realised that there is a need for quality family orientated entertainment for the festive season. People came in their numbers and this will definitely be a calendar event every year.”
derick.khumalo