peter
Showbiz Reporter
THE Mapopoma Festival that had been scheduled to be held on New Year’s Eve in Victoria Falls has been postponed indefinitely due to a strong warning from the police on the hosting of crossover events.
Earlier this week, the police said all New Year’s crossover events and all-night prayer meetings had been banned due to the Covid-19 lockdown regulations. The police warned that all such gatherings are illegal as they contravene the curfew hours.
Zimbabwe’s curfew hours run from 9PM to 6AM after the Government put the country under Covid-19 Level 2 lockdown, following the emergence of the Omicron Covid-19 variant.
The warning from police came after some churches and music promoters were advertising that they would be holding all-night prayer meetings and crossover events on New Year’s Eve to usher in 2022.
Following this warning by police, organisers of the Mapopoma Festival decided to shelve their event.
“Following the statement that was released by the ZRP spokesperson, Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi on the prohibition of New Year’s crossover parties and police’s stance on ensuring that the existing curfew is enforced in full, we would like to advise the public that Mapopoma Festival, 2021 has been postponed to a later date to be announced,” Mapopoma Festival organisers said in a statement.
“It was our hope that we would get a waiver to convene this year’s festival noting the herd immunity that has been reached by Victoria Falls. Sadly, our engagement efforts with the relevant authorities did not yield much success.”
The organisers however, said they remain committed to hosting the festival at a time where the environment will be permitting.
“We remain committed to hosting the festival at a time where the environment will be permitting for us to play our role of contributing to the growth of the domestic tourism in line with the National Development Strategy 1. New dates for the festival will be announced in due course.”
Before the warning from the police, the event had already been scaled down to one day from the initial three days due to a spike in Covid-19 cases.
The event was set to be held at the Kingdom Hotel with performances from Nutty O, Feli Nandi, Holy Ten, King 98, Djembe Monks, Muffia King, Conz, Snappy and Kivo Santana.
The festival that was introduced in 2018 is meant to celebrate arts, culture and the beauty of Victoria Falls through music and dance.
Online Reporter