BULAWAYO Arts Festival team seems to have struck the right chord for this year’s edition.
The team seems to be ticking the right boxes and to be getting most stakeholders on board. BAF is the brainchild of Bulawayo City Council and Nhimbe Trust. Nhimbe Trust, under the leadership of Josh Nyapimbi, seems to have managed to guide the city fathers into the right direction by convincing them Bulawayo as a city needed a festival that will market the city to all corners of the world.
The marriage, in its second year, is working and producing the required outcomes. Most cities throughout the world are known by their festivals.
In a global market, Bulawayo needs to develop a distinct profile that seeks to attract mobile consumers. The city needs to brand itself as an experience space. It will appear as if BAF team is out to promote a distinctive city of Bulawayo as it outlines its uniqueness through its second edition. Aesthetic experiences brought by festivals must form the basis for generating socio-economic value of cities hosting them.
The branding of physical sites within Bulawayo by BAF as experience spaces is part of the logic of experience-based value creation. This year’s edition of BAF seems to be skewed at marketing Bulawayo as ‘a site of use, experience and symbolism.’
This year’s edition of the BAF and its cultural events are a means to contribute to a positive image of a Bulawayo as a place, and to create employment opportunities, to further economic growth and entrepreneurial confidence within its population and the creative sector in particular.
The festival has acted as a vehicle for bringing together a range of stakeholders in the form performers, visitors, inhabitants, volunteers, entrepreneurs, and the public sector as it seeks to feed into civic cultural policies as both product and framework, designed to attract a wealthy target market and furnish the city with a competitive image.
The biggest achievement for BAF is being able to bring on board government ministries and departments. The festival this year has managed to bring on board the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works. It will appear as if the festival organisers managed to get the ear of the Cabinet and managed to attract the attendance of His Excellency the President of Zimbabwe Emmerson Mnagangwa.
“Cabinet advises that the inaugural Bulawayo Arts Festival was digitally launched in 2020, reaching audiences in 45 countries. This year’s festival is scheduled to be held from 2 to 5 June, 2021. The main festival, which will remain digital due to Covid 19 control measures, will feature two main high-profile programmes, namely: the launch of the Bulawayo Urban Heritage and Eco-Tourism programme on the 3rd of June and the Creative and Cultural industry Conference on the 4th to the 5th of June 2021. Government is pleased to announce that His Excellency the President will officiate at the event,” read part of the statement.
The buy-in by the government and the Presidency is a welcome develop. It shows that the festival team is doing something right which is in line with the development plan by the central government. It is always important that central government is involved in programmes that are developmental and are aimed at bringing in growth in the country. It is in this area that BAF has dwarfed and given homework to its competitors.
BAF is out to ascertain Bulawayo as a Capital of Culture. The direction that BAF has taken is likely to have economic impart for the city. The festival seems to demonstrate that culture is a device with which Bulawayo can be conceived as a brand that attract visitors in search of experiences.
Maybe Bulawayo Festivals brands need to network with so many stakeholders so as to make Bulawayo a preferred Cultural destination that attracts a large number of visitors post Covid-19. It is always wise to take a leaf from the best experience. The festivals combined can bring economic as well as social and cultural benefits. EDITOR.
