26 Jun 2014

Botswana will celebrate its cultural wealth and heritage on the last week of August at the first ever Gaborone International Music and Culture Week (GIMC).

The GIMC, a week long arts festival that is touted as the biggest ever in Botswana, will be staged in Gaborone courtesy of Leapfrog Events and Management.

According to Thapelo Pabalinga, managing director of Leapfrog and the brains behind the GIMC, the arts and culture extravaganza will feature choral music, dance and song, poetry, comedy, culture night, jazz festival, artists’ workshop, international music show and fashion.

“This event will highlight our culture, celebrate our people and celebrate Gaborone city. It will also encourage tourism as people will travel from within the country and outside to attend the festival,” he said.

Pabalinga said the GIMC would brand Gaborone just like other big festivals such as the Cape Town jazz festival in South Africa. “A lot of Batswana travel to Cape Town and other cities in Southern Africa to attend these festivals. It’s time we had one of our own,” he said.

He also said they planned to make the GIMC one of the biggest arts and culture events in the region, on the same level as the Cape Town Jazz Festival, Harare Arts Week in Zimbabwe, Bush Festival in Swaziland, Mangaung Cultural Festival (Macufe) in Bloemfontein and the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.

Various local and international artists have been lined up to perform at the inaugural GIMC. The event will also feature an artists’ workshop, which will be meant forge long term strategic partnerships with visiting artists, record labels and corporates and eventually foster growth in the local music industry.

Part of the proceeds from the festival will be donated to a charity organisation dealing with arts and culture. Pabalinga added that they expect eda crowd of over 10 000 people and further revealed that they would seek support from the department of arts and culture and other government departments.

“Some of the objectives of GIMC are to create a platform for local artists to forge partnerships with their international peers, to help Botswana brands reach local and international markets, boost the local economy and create employment for the youth, promote tourism as well as showcase Botswana’s culture to the outside world,” said Pabalinga. ENDS