The Sunday News
Raisedon Baya
THE 2nd edition of the Bulawayo Arts Awards (BAAzw) was launched last week at a local hotel. The launch brought some serious excitement among local artistes and Bulawayo residents as some started reliving their 2017 moments.
The 1st edition in 2017 was a runaway success, with the Large City Hall oversubscribed and people being turned away. The media described it as the best event of 2017.
More exciting last year was the decision by almost everyone who attended the awards ceremony to dress up for the occasion, albeit most chose safety.
Most men went for ordinary suits or just jackets — too conservative as one fashion critic put it. The women tried their best, they looked good in their multi-layers and multi-coloured dresses. One or two went for the shocking look.
But what awards ceremony would be worth its salt without one or two celebrities going out of their way to get people’s attention to their fashion sense?
Last year it was none other than our celebrated businesswoman and actress Sarah Mpofu-Sibanda. She brought her A-game and surprised many. So as preparations for the 2nd edition gather momentum we wonder who will be on people’s mouths and social media pages for their fashion sense.
There are a couple of local fashion designers who are already promising BAAzw organisers something “never seen before”. All we can say is bring it on because Bulawayo is waiting!
For years the City of Bulawayo has had no proper and exciting dress up event. The Bulawayo Arts Awards have come to fill up that void. The clarion call this year is “making Bulawayo Arts awards the biggest dress up event of the year in Bulawayo”.
Many people have asked whether the Large City Hall will be able to accommodate everyone who wants to come to the awards. The answer is a big NO.
This year only 1 000 tickets will be sold to the public. The only advice we can give to the public is to buy their tickets early. Once the tickets are available buy and avoid disappointment.
“Our hope is to sell all our tickets in advance so that come awards day our focus is giving ticket holders the attention and show they paid for,” said Saimon Mambazo Phiri, one of the organisers, during the launch of the 2nd edition.
Last year a lot of people came dressed-up for the event only to be turned away as the event was sold out.
The Bulawayo Arts Awards are about celebrating Bulawayo’s talents. They celebrate individual talent, effort and artistic excellence.
As said before in other articles and writing the awards are not in competition with any other awards, locally or nationally. If anything, Bulawayo Arts Awards want to complement other existing efforts to recognise and celebrate amazing effort and talent among local artistes.
Bulawayo Arts Awards believes no one will celebrate Bulawayo better than Bulawayo. The main objective of the awards is to celebrate diversity, inclusiveness and vibrancy.
So an open call was made at the launch for artistes and even the public to submit their works for consideration.
The public are encouraged to nominate their favourite artistes and works of arts. Only art works produced between 30 June 2017 and 12 April 2018 are eligible.
It is also important to note that the awards seek to recognise artistes born in Bulawayo or Matabeleland and working in any part of the world or artistes born in any part of the world but practicing and residing in Bulawayo and or Matabeleland.
Arts and the general public are encouraged to visit the awards Facebook page or website https;//byoarts-awards.org for more information. Also forms can be collected from National Art Gallery in Bulawayo, Boom City, Bulawayo Cultural Office (Nguboyenja) and Entertainment HQ.
Happy nominating and voting. Let’s meet in May all dressed up!
