BY SINDISO DUBE
ORGANISERS of the Roil Bulawayo Arts Awards have revealed that they need $110 000 to successfully host this year’s third edition of Bulawayo’s biggest dress-up event.
The awards ceremony was launched in the city on Friday night at a well-attended event at Bulawayo Theatre.
The first two editions of the awards were held at the Large City Hall. This year’s edition will be held on June 29 at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) hall 4 after the nominees dinner party scheduled for June 27 at the ZITF hall 5.
United Refineries, through their Roil Cooking Oil brand continue their partnership with the awards after injecting $55 000 for this year’s ceremony.
“When we opened 2019, our budget was seating at $110 000 to successfully host the awards this year that will go into facilities and services. We are happy that we are continuing with the partnership with Roil, who have so-far injected a cool $55 000 which makes them the main sponsor of the awards,” said Simon Mambazo Phiri, one of the awards organisers.
United Refineries chief executive officer Busisa Moyo said they will continue supporting the arts as long as they get support from the residents and artistes.
”Last year we were challenged to show that we were not one-hit wonders by sponsoring the awards for one year only. Thank you everyone, including the artistes for pushing the arts and also the Roil Cooking oil brand; that’s why we are back here,” he said.
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“We are a conscious company, which is not a company that only sells products, but we want to be part of the life of the people of Zimbabwe, we are very proud to be part of Bulawayo arts awards.”
This year’s awards maintained the 12 categories and added five new awards to make a total of 50 gongs. The additions include outstanding music producer, outstanding arts personality from outside of Bulawayo, outstanding choral music group, outstanding arts educator (primary school) and outstanding artiste in the community.
Tickets for the ceremony go on sale on March 18 at $15 VVIP, $10 VIP and $5 general.
Nominations have opened to the public and will close on May 1. Nominees will be announced on May 31 and voting will close June 26.
Last year, Black Umfolosi scooped the lifetime achievement gong at the awards.
