This years Zimfest was bigger and better than ever and turnout was huge, with around 5000 people through the gates. You could even go as far to say that Zimfest is becoming a global phenomenom. The Zimfestlive.com website this year had links to festivals all over the world. “Zimfest UK is the strongest Zimbabwean charity-festival brand in the world,” says Mike Tashaya head of marketing for Zimfest. “So we have made contact with various fledgling teams around the world to make Zimfest a global event. Within the year, we will have similar aspirations, big screen link ups between the festivals on the same day and we’ll start to build a community who share the same values which are: have a good time, do a good thing and feel good!” Zimfest will continue to grow and there are some strong rumours that Zimfest might next year become an all-weekend camping event.
I did not have time to visit this years event, but the organisers kindly sent me some information to publish, so below are a few snippets of some of the best things that I missed this year:
The Music at the Festival
The Zimfest organising committee made the decision to showcase acts bubbling up from obscurity rather than relying on aging stars, who might push the ticket prices up even further and make the festival all about ‘a headliner.’ The gamble paid off in that there were some excellent performances right across the cultural spectrum, which not only allowed everyone to feel welcome, but served to reveal to Zimbabweans how much talent their countrymen have. Rozalla’s ‘Everybody’s Free!’ had people screaming with an abandon not seen at a Zimbabwean musical gathering for years and a savvy marketer could easily re-release the song as an anthem for a positive Zimbabwe of the future)
Football at Zimfest
With support from some of the world’s most famous footballers, the football was a real success at Zimfest. Zimbabwe team captain and Manchester City striker Benjani Mwaruwaru joined in along with former England and Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Ian Walker, former West Ham Player Rufus Brevitt and former Watford and AC Milan player Luther Blissett who came as part of the Brand Africa our sponsors for the football tournament. As part of that sponsorship they also help a raffle where winners won tickets to premiership matches.
Rugby at Zimfest
The sporting events aren’t always the highest profile activities at the festival, but this year there were some great teams and fantastic matches. The rugby 7s was sponsored by Saracens Rugby Club who gave tickets to Wembly to watch The Saracens play to the winners.
Zimfest Supports Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans
The core of Zimfest is Zimbabwe and in that sense the festival which continues to grow, still continues to support Zimbabwe. and when you say the two words ‘charity’ and ‘Africa’ people immediately get suspicious. But after conversation with the Wezimbabwe and Zimfest teams and you’ll find the type of steadfast vision for the money that simply broaches no suspicion. “We support a range of projects from building schools to teaching kids how to use computers in Zim” says Hilton Mendelsohn of Wezimbabwe “Anyone who wonders where the money goes at Zimfest simply needs to go to our website www.wezimbabwe.org where they will find constant updates as exactly to where the money is going. A group of independently successful individuals runs Wezimbabwe, we are bound by a strict charity charter, and completely transparent. We want people to be proud of what they have achieved with us.” Many people don’t know this but Zimfest itself is a self funding charitable project with it’s goal being community development
Charles Coventry equaled the highest individual one-day international score but could not prevent Zimbabwe losing the series against Bangladesh.
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