Rwandan festival to host international artists

The three-day festival will feature a series of free workshops to promote humanity through music, art, drama and dance. This year’s edition will see theatre performances from Rwanda, Nigeria, the US, UK, DRC, Czech Republic, Uganda, South Africa, Lebanon, Belgium, India, Sweden, Iraq and Burundi.

“This festival aims to inspire participants to be champions for humanity and agents of positive change in their communities,” the festival’s curator and founder of Mashirika Performing Arts and Media Company, Hope Azeda, said.

“The performances at this year’s festival will connect attendees with the concepts of art and technology by bringing stories of home to life. Our festival aims at creating an avenue where people from different walks of life can come together and speak to each other in the language of art.

First held in 2015, the festival symbolically happens after the last week of the 100 days commemoration period for the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, by bringing together different artists and performance troupes from across the globe for various performances.

As part of pre-festival events, the festival staged a flash mob dance featuring a local dance crew at Kigali Regional Stadium on 8 July. It will also hold its opening ceremony at Kigali Heights on 13 July from 6pm.

The festival is normally a great opportunity for aspiring Rwandan artists to network. Apart from international acts, the festival will also feature local performances from Deo Munyakazi, GS Rugoma Secondary School from Kirehe District (Romeo and Juliet), Agahozo Shalom Youth Village (Have Mercy) and Talking Through Art (Inshuti).