By Staff Reporter

THE quest to take the organisation and running of the Ndau Festival of the Arts, held annually in Chipinge, has taken the festival’s leadership to Spain to learn more about how to host major cultural events successfully.

Phillip Kusasa, the festival director, travelled to Spain last weekend with the support of the Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Trust, for a conference of festival organisers from various countries around the world, which runs until March 17.

“I expect to learn a lot from other like-minded festival organisers. I also expect to be empowered with relevant knowledge very useful in running and managing events.

“It will be a milestone workshop, where I will have a chance to share my experiences in running festivals. I will be a rich administrator after this workshop. Whatever I will benefit will be taken back home to share and empower the local communities,” Kusasa said before leaving for the Festival, Atelier Donostia/San Sebastian 2025 in Spain’s Basque region.

Festivals are spaces for expression, for experiment, for diversity, for different perspectives and ways to co-exist. Festivals act as agents for social change.

Kusasa is hoping to be able to meet and network with festival makers from across the globe, to reflect on the role of festivals in society, explore the power of festivals and critical global concerns of our time including, during and in the aftermath of conflict.

By Monday, the end of the festival, participants will have formed deeper bonds and relationships with others and gained a deeper understanding of the local cultural context of the host city. Kusasa is also hoping to have gained knowledge and skills needed to manage the Ndau Festival of the Arts and initiatives better and have acquired a better understanding of multiple perspectives that exist, as well as have a deep, open, and authentic discussions around global challenges and the role of festivals.

The Ndau Festival of the Arts director, who was one of three participants from Southern Africa gained training around specific sustainable strategies, specifically strategic partnerships funding, and fundraising mechanisms.

The purpose of the gathering in San Sebastian, according to the organisers, was to create a platform where all have in common, rather than what divides; to recognise their collective pain in turbulent times, resulting from inequalities, conflict, climate threats and social injustice around the world.

But it was also to experience joy – to celebrate and enjoy humanity together, and to share, play, learn, listen, engage and relax together, “to reach a state where we can see our own challenges and context through the eyes of another, to awaken our creative power, curiosity, and radical imagination, inspiring and being inspired – to transform and broaden our perspectives, methods, and habits (how we do things) and our human experience (how we exist),” explained the organisers.

The idea behind the festival in the Basque country was to bring together and create a community that can set up new collaborations and new models of co-operation together; and who can go back to their context and make positive changes in their festival creation and face their challenges with more courage and strength.

But the festival also provided an opportunity for the participants to get to know and appreciate the socio-political and cultural context of the Basque country and Spain.

“We enable and facilitate a global inclusive conversation and critical reflection between festival managers from different art disciplines, origins, generations and social backgrounds on the role that arts, culture and more particularly festivals, can play in a fast-changing world,” explained the organisers.

The Ndau Festival of the Arts was launched in 2013 and takes place at Bangira Village in Chikore in Chipinge District of Manicaland Province during the last week of September.

Over the years, it has played a significant role in promoting cultural tourism as it attracts tourists from as far as Europe, Asia and other African countries.

But in recent years it has also been the focus of universities, keen on researching issues around the Ndau culture, migrations and efforts at preserving their cultural heritage.

New Ziana