Education Africa will once again be hosting the Virtual International Marimba and Steelpan Festival – the largest festival of its kind in the world, reaching global participation. This includes schools from Ekurhuleni.
The event will be broadcast on Facebook and YouTube over the weekends of November 13 and 14 and 20 and 21, and never before have there been so many participants!
“Covid-19 has taught us that now, more than ever, it is crucial for societies to stand together,” said Joan Lithgow, Education Africa’s marimba specialist and director of the International Marimba and Steelpan Festival.
“Social cohesion is the cornerstone of what we believe for all Education Africa’s projects and in particular for our International Arts and Culture programmes.”
Growth is the most encouraging aspect of this year’s festival. Since the first virtual festival took place last year, it has grown dramatically. Participating countries have increased from seven to 11, category entries from 141 to 256 and five soloists from three countries to 16. However, the most impressive number is the number of participants increasing by nearly 250% from 667 to 1 615.
Two of Education Africa’s special needs bands will also be taking part this year. The Dominican School for Deaf Children from Hammanskraal is the only deaf marimba band in the world and the Jiswa Special Needs School for Severely Intellectually Disabled children (SID) will also be taking part.
Besides the many local and African countries, competitors from as far away as the UK, USA, New Zealand, Australia and soloists from Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago will participate.
The reason for this growth is the need both in South Africa and globally for opportunities to perform to like-minded people who appreciate the hard work that is put into performing in a marimba or a steelpan band. The excitement of seeing young people all over the world taking part in this celebration of music has motivated even more performers globally to take part.
Many steelpan players play marimbas and vice versa, and while the two types of instruments are totally different in layout, design and sound, they complement each other beautifully when played together in ensemble.
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