HIFA(Simbabwe)

The Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) is a 6-day annual festival that showcases the very best of Zimbabwean, regional and international arts and culture in a comprehensive programme of theatre, dance, music, circus, street performance, spoken word, craft and visual arts. HIFA brings together socially and culturally disparate groups of Zimbabweans to celebrate the healing and constructive capacity of the arts. HIFA 2012 will be the 13th edition of the festival. Our 2012 theme, A SHOW OF SPIRIT, points to both the vibrant nature of HIFA, and the passion and aspiration of our audiences. We are celebrating the capacity of the arts to impart courage, compassion and determination, and calling on our audience to boldly embrace the creative force within all of us. “ probably the best organised festival in the sub-continent and one of the most manageably diverse. More importantly in the current socio-economic situation HIFA has come to be seen as an important symbol of something positive about Zimbabwe”. Robert Grieg, Sunday Independent (South Africa)

RAVY (Cameroon)

RAVY is an international visual arts festival held every two years in Yaoundé, Cameroon. For one week, the citizens of Yaoundé will be spontaneously invited to contribute to art interventions and public performances. Some artists will exhibit their work indoor, as in gallery, museum or cultural space. RAVY festival receives artists from around the world to present their work along several mediums like painting, sculpture, photography, art video, installation or performance. The festival is also an opportunity to enrich the encounters between artists and curators with a special schedule on workshops both in the practice of contemporary art and on the management of cultural projects. RAVY is a project initiated by Cameroonians artists of Kamer Palettes association, in partnership with CRANE_ Resources Centre based in France.

Lagos Photo Festival (Nigeria)

The Lagos Photo Festival was launched in 2010 as the first international festival for photography in Nigeria. “What’s Next Africa? -The Hidden Stories.” will be the theme for this years’ festival, which runs from 7 October until 23 October 2011. It is organized by the African Artists’ Foundation in cooperation with the European National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC).
In 2011 the festival is featuring more than 40 photographers from Nigeria and the world, newcomers, as well as well-established photographers. It will open with an exhibition and will feature a variety of events, such as photo walks, photography workshops and film screenings. Non-professional photographers will have the opportunity to submit up to 5 photos for the Amateur Photography Competition.

More information:
Lagos Photo Festival Blog

Bayimba (Uganda)

Since 2008, the Bayimba International Festival of the Arts has become an important annual event on the cultural calendar of Uganda. It is the most visible activity of the Bayimba Cultural Foundation (among other things). The Festival provides an exciting platform for cultural and artistic exchange, collaborations and exhibition of arts – it puts cultural and modern dancers, local, regional and international artists on one stage, sharing a diverse audience while exposing their dynamic and exciting cultural and creative talents.
The Festival is organized every year in September for three days at the easily accessible National Theatre in the centre of Kampala and is free of charge. The Festival attracts a large and diverse public and reaches out to segments of the population that would otherwise have no access the diverse exhibited art forms.
An attractive programme of over 200 quality acts from all different art forms are presented.

More information:
Bayimba Homepage

Performing Arts Platform Kinshasa (DRC)

The yearly multidisciplinary Performing Arts Platform of Kinshasa links up visual arts, film and literature. With its focus on the contemporary performing arts the festival consists of dance, theater, music performances, workshops, residencies, conferences and debates. The aim of the Platform is not a multitude but a limited selection of high quality artistic productions. Artists from Kinshasa and the DRC, Africa, Europe and other places around the world meet in an international atmosphere. The informal environment shall enable for artists and audience to meet, exchange ideas and enjoy. No specific theme is given and there is no call for proposals.

The Platform is organized by KVS, the Royal Flemish Theatre of Brussels, in cooperation with Les Béjarts and Collectif Sadi, with Centre Wallonie Bruxelles and the Institut Francais. The Minister of Arts and Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo patronizes the festival. KVS has been working with Congolese artists since 2005 in Kinshasa as well as Brussels. Les Béjarts, a small but dynamic cultural space in the district of Bandalungwa, has its own theatre and dance company. Participants also work for television and combine high artistic quality with a clear social dimension. The Collectif Sadi is a team of young and brilliant visual artists who meet in a small space in the township of Lingwala. Individually and as a collective they work with social and environmental phenomena of Kinshasa.

The Platform will take place in the Institut Français Halle de la Gombe. The workshop centre is the Lycée Prince de Liège.

Fespaco (Burkina Faso)

The pan-African Film Festival FESPACO – the name is an abbreviation of the French name Festival panafricain du cinéma et de la télévision de Ouagadougou – takes place each year in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso.

The festival dates back to the year 1969, when African film-enthusiasts met for the first time in Ouagadougou. Since 1971 the festival has been acknowledged and funded by the state – in the same year, the prize for “best movie” was awarded for the first time. The winner was Nigeria’s Oumarou Ganda with his movie Le Wazzou Polygame. He was given the golden statue of the legendary king’s daughter Yennega, which can also be found on many public places in Ouagadougou.

Today, the festival has become the biggest annual cultural event on the whole continent and it is an enormous meeting point for African professionals from the film- and TV-industry. There is hardly any minute without programme between the opening and the award ceremony, both of which happen in the city’s soccer stadium: For one week movies, premiers and workshops dictate the rhythm of the city.

In 2011, the Goethe-Institut enables nine dedicated filmmakers and actors from seven different African countries to travel to FESPACO – they will document their experiences in this blog.

Website of the festival: http://www.fespaco.bf