MBOMBELA – The Mpumalanga Arts and Culture Experience annual festival was officially launched and is ready to go ahead with its plan of staging an extraordinary event to promote tourism in the province.
It aims to showcase the talent of local artists, promote tourism and put people in the mood for the festive season.
It will bring vibrancy to the city as it is packaged to accommodate both young and old. Locals will be spoiled for choice in terms of getting entertained, as the festival will be held for three days at the Mbombela Stadium, from December 1 to 3.
The first day will be a carnival street parade, where maskandi and 23 traditional groups will entertain and interact with bystanders at the Promenade Shopping Complex. The second day will feature a comedy night, where national, provincial and local acts will share the stage. On the last day, people will be blown away during be the battle of the Djs.
This publication learned that four acts, which include house music and kwaito and 10 provincial acts, will entertain the crowd until the crack of dawn.
This initiative comes after Macfest that was held a few years ago in Emalahleni and Middelburg, which did not attract a good turnout, because it lacked adequate marketing and had an artist line-up that did not appeal to revellers.
Delivering her keynote address at the launch, the MEC for culture, sport and recreation, Norah Mahlangu gave citizens of the province an assurance that this initiative would be able to sustain itself.
“This is the one-of-a-kind festival that we will host annually as we have realised that our province has talent, it’s just that people don’t get a good platform to showcase it. This was proved on numerous occasions as we witnessed our children putting Mpumalanga on the map which include our Idols winners Musa Sukwane, Karabo Mogane and the overall winners of Clash of the Choirs. We are proud of you guys, keep it up. I have no doubt that people of the province will embrace the festival,” she assured.
The launch was graced by various artists who have made it in the entertainment industry, like Sipho “Big Fish” Makhabane, Ray Phiri and Mbongiseni “Bholoja” Ngubane.
About this initiative, Ngubane said, “We appreciate what our government is doing as they are taking arts seriously and the festival will also boost our relationship with our neighbouring countries such as Swaziland and Maputo.”
