The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu
DESPITE the economic challenges facing the country, the City of Kings was once again a hive of activity during the festive season, with many defying the financial odds to toast to the end of another year.
The beer flowed at outdoor spots and night clubs recorded brisk business as revellers thronged their favourite watering holes. The financial pain that Zimbabweans complain about seemed a world away as alcohol, some of it bought in hard currency, was bought by the gallons.
However, despite all the events lined up in the city, few catered for the needs of entire families during a period that is synonymous with family togetherness. One of those events was the Arts Extra, an event that might have stumbled on a winning formula during a period of the year in which the calendar is jam packed with blockbuster events.
Iyasa’s curtain closing show was one event that illuminated the Arts Extra, as it recorded a full house, with most in the audience tagging along with their whole families. According to Arts Extra director Raisedon Baya, that event and the third edition of the Arts Extra might have given them pointers on how to organise their events in future.
“What we realised was that during the festive season family friendly content is very appealing. So it means that we have to seriously look at exploring that in future. However, that also presents a challenge on its own because we’ve not been concentrating on family friendly content and most of the content at the Arts Extra is adult content. So that’s something that we’ve got to address in future if that’s the direction that we want to go,” he said.
Baya said another challenge that the arts fest faced was that some acts were unavailable because of the festive season.
“This is something that we need to work on as artistes. We need to tell ourselves that December is a working period and that we can then go on to rest in January and February after we’ve handled our business,” he said.
