Online Reporter
Langalihle Mhiti-Zimpapers Entertainment Hub
THE Sunshine City Festival has officially started unveiling sponsorship and partnership opportunities as it prepares for its third edition, scheduled to take place from February 23 to 25.
The three-day festival, which will be hosted in Harare, is positioning itself as a premium, multi-layered cultural experience that blends arts, sports, lifestyle and business networking.
Addressing stakeholders at the sponsorship unveiling, Sunshine City Festival chairperson Rachel Chibaya said her involvement in the event was rooted in a lifelong connection to the arts.
Although she is a lawyer by profession, she said her creative background made it easy to commit to the festival’s vision.
“Back then in high school, we were a group that belonged to the arts students. If you know very well Chiburema Arts, those were the storytellers, they would do dramas, they would do debates, and so forth,” she said.
Miss Chibaya revealed that when festival founder Kudzai Chinovhiringa approached her to join the board, the concept immediately resonated with her. “He pitched Sunshine City Festival, and immediately I just said, you know what, I’m in. We are the arts, we belong to the arts group, so we want things to happen,” she said.
She praised the organisers for professionalising the event and elevating it to corporate standards. “I am here to thank the advisory board and to thank Kudzai for corporatising this event. As you can see, this is a premium event already,” she said, adding that the marketing pitch clearly showed the uniqueness of the festival.
Chibaya said the current engagement is centred on inviting corporates to come on board. “What we are calling for is your sponsorship and partnership,” she said, noting that collaboration is key to the sustainability and growth of cultural festivals.
Artistic director of the festival Alfred Nenguwo described Sunshine City Festival as a timely intervention for Harare’s entertainment and cultural scene, which has experienced a gap in large-scale, diverse festivals in recent years.
“Harare is the first multi-layered festival in a while. We’ve heard of other festivals before, Aifa and stuff, but since then there’s been a void,” he said.
He explained that Sunshine City Festival, now in its third edition, aims to fill that gap by offering a wide range of activities across different sectors. “Sunshine City Festival is coming in as a premium multi-layered festival,” Alfred said.
The three-day programme will feature a mix of sporting, lifestyle and entertainment activities, including soccer and golf tournaments, live music performances, and a marathon. Alfred said the festival is designed to create an environment that promotes interaction and creativity.
“People must expect three days of fun, learning, networking, good music, good food, fashion, and photography from all spheres of the world, but converging and meeting in Harare,” he said.
In a move aimed at building public confidence, the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ) has assured stakeholders and the public that the Sunshine City Festival is a registered and recognised event.
The council said people should not be afraid to associate with or support the festival, as it meets all regulatory requirements.
However, the Sunshine City Festival enters Harare’s cultural space against the backdrop of a city with a rich but uneven festival history, one that has produced iconic platforms while also enduring long periods of silence.
Harare has previously hosted major festivals such as the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA), which for years stood as the gold standard of multidisciplinary arts programming in Zimbabwe, shaping careers, opening global networks for local artists and professionalising the creative industry through exposure, training and international exchange.
Other notable events, including ZimDancehall showcases, music carnivals, and niche lifestyle festivals, have also played important roles in energising the city’s cultural life, though many struggled to sustain momentum.
Against this legacy, Sunshine City Festival positions itself as a new-generation, multi-layered event that draws from HIFA’s blueprint of artistic diversity and excellence, while adapting it to contemporary tastes by blending music, sport, lifestyle and networking into a modern urban festival experience aimed at reviving Harare’s festival culture.
