26 Oct 2016

International artists who thronged Maun for the annual International Arts festival will today (Thursday October 27) be be treated to a cultural expo at the Batawana main kgotla.

The artists, stakeholders and some selected members of the public would gather at the kgotla and meet the leadership and be taken through the diverse culture of Batawana.

Artists from countries such as Zimbabwe, South Africa, United States of America, Hungary, Bulgaria, Kenya, Lesotho, Namibia just to mention a few are in Maun to participate in this year’s festival.

The coordinator of the festival, Thato Molosi told media practitioners during a press conference that the event is meant to give artists an opportunity to appreciate and get a glimpse into the rich culture of Batawana.

He said artists would  have a chance to interact with the villagers, exchange ideas, learn more history, tradition and cultural customs and also have a taste of traditional food, drinks, dance and games.

Molosi also noted that the festival is indeed growing in leaps and bounds in terms of quality, attendance and inclusion of some disciplines such as comedy, contemporary music and visual arts hads been introduced.

He said the festival was meant to celebrate the creative industry and also to create something for tourists to keep themselves busy as they use Maun as the gate way to the Okavango delta.

He also mentioned that through the festival, they managed to establish partnership locally and internationally adding that this year about 10 countries have shown interest to take part in the event.

Molosi said about four countries would be coming through the European Union SMART project. The project support decision makers to improve strategies with an aim of incorporating the creation of employment as an additional key feature of their activities.

He also observed that this year, they managed to attract many sponsors some of whom funded some specific activities citing the Machaba Safaris and Mascom Wireless through Tsena Botswana project which sponsored the creative writing competition for school children while Botswana Tourism Organization funded the publicity material for the festival to the tune of P50 000. ENDS