The Manicaland Secondary Schools Folk Dance and Music Festival roars into life today and will end tomorrow at St Dominics High School in Mutare.
BY CLAYTON MASEKESA
The annual event is organised by Bembera Arts Ensemble in collaboration with National Association of Secondary School Heads (Nash) Manicaland.
It is funded by Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Trust in partnership with Swedish International Development Agency, European Union and Danish International Development Agency.
The festival will run under the theme, “Investing in Women in Arts Empowerment and Enterprise: Rethinking the role of Arts Development in Zimbabwe and Promoting Gender Equality.”
The project and festival director Taurai Moyo told NewsDay yesterday that everything was now in place for the event.
“We are fully geared for this prestigious event. We have already held workshops for trainers to grasp the basic knowledge on various disciplines. The workshops have been very successful,” he said.
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“The project seeks to use arts as a vehicle for development among youths. We will use the platform to initiate discussions with communities on pertinent social issues. The programme will enable women to build their capacities in terms of business and leadership skills and enterprise development.”
He said the event will provide them with knowledge to form and lead their music bands and market their music locally and internationally.
Moyo said the programme was the first of its kind in Zimbabwe for secondary schools since traditional dances, mbira and marimba competitions were only common at primary school level and tertiary colleges as well as universities.
