Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) is a 6-day annual festival and workshop programme that showcases the very best of local, regional and international arts and culture in a comprehensive festival programme of theatre, dance, music, circus, street performance, spoken word, visual arts. HIFA has come to be seen as an important symbol of something positive about Zimbabwe, unifying socially and culturally disparate groups of Zimbabweans at a time of ideological conflict and political uncertainty bringing huge audiences together to celebrate something positive – the healing and constructive capacity of the arts. The shows and performances are distributed around various venues in the city centre.
POVO at HIFA
The shows we cover at the moment deal mainly with shows and performances in and around the main HIFA precinct, the heart of HIFA in our opinion which includes the National Gallery and Harare Gardens. Hence most of the shows covered are music shows.
Hifa 2008 – Art of Determination
Will be centred on collaborations as the festival strives to create more synergies between local and international artists.
The visual arts have also been a feature at HIFA. The annual exhibition is usually in the National Art Gallery and mainly features up and coming artists. This same show featured a fashion show in amongst the installations in the gallery. Popular at the exhibition was an installation by Masimba Hwati called Toward Redemption which featured a Volkswagon seemingly taking off in flight leaving a trail of its parts behind.
