Hifa sets city aglow!

As has become the norm, the opening night reverberated with a fireworks display just as the main attraction of the night —Carmina Burana — came to an end.
Carmina Burana, a uniquely Zimbabwean classical performance, was directed by La Fura Dels Baus from Spain. Though classical music has a small following in the country, the performance received a standing ovation.
The massive crowd, which filled the Telecel Main Stage, was a motley of people from all walks of life.
HIFA founder and artistic director, Manuel Bagorro, could have summarised the essence of this artistic showcase when he said “HIFA 2010 represents our attempt to seek out new solutions to challenges, and our determination to ask difficult questions about the past and future in this country”.
Indeed HIFA symbolises Zimbabwe’s pride in diversity and innovation so much unparalleled in scope and grandeur.
The line-up of artists — from theatrical performances to poetry and dance to musical performances — is surely a quest for inter-cultural harmony.
Artists from the world over — from Latin America with Emeline Michel, dubbed the Joni Mitchell of Haiti to Europe with such stars as the Portuguese fado singer Mafalda Arnauth and to Africa itself — the week-long fest is definitely a place for cultural exchange.
The HIFA programme starts at 10am daily with the National Gallery of Zimbabwe exhibitions of various visual arts from Zimbabwe, the continent and beyond.
The exhibitions are open to the public until 7.30pm. But other events will also be happening at the same time in different venues of the arts fest.
Major upcoming musicals include Xalam, an accomplished Senegalese ensemble; Los Aslandticos, a Spanish group that’s becoming one of the most commercially successful and musically respected fusion; the Magnets, a British six-man sound machine fuses glorious harmonies with jaw-dropping beat-boxing; Niiles-Jouni, one of Finland’s most respected joik artists; Russian pianist Olga Domnia, to mention just but a few.