Not even the scorching heat could stop fun-seekers from attending this year’s edition of  the Tumaini Festival at Dzaleka Refuge Camp, Dowa.

This year’s edition also lived up to the set standard. There was also plenty to watch, plenty to eat and plenty to do. Five stages were mounted with a reasonable distance among them and on Saturday, from morning to evening, they hosted different performances from music, dance and drama to poetry.

 Patrons had to switch from one side to another based on their taste.

Two big stages, named Elikva and Kwizera, were reserved for music and dance-related performances. Then there was a stage reserved for traditional dances such as gule wamkulu, malipenga, m’ganda and acrobatics. These were all open space performances while poetry and drama were allocated two separate in-door spaces within the perimeters of the festival at Dzaleka Refuge Camp.

Within the venue were shops for a variety of items, from clothes to foodstuffs. The food was a huge attraction as a number of people were seen sampling what they usually do not take for a meal such as boiled and fried bananas mixed with meat or chicken. The eateries, which also stocked alcoholic drinks were a common feature.

On Saturday afternoon, patrons really had a packed menu of activities. There was always a dilemma on what to watch at a time especially with a variety of performances taking place at once. However, at night, the festival was reduced to two stages hosting music performances, hence, allowing the audience a choice between the two performances.

“The dilemma is real. Imagine I was enjoying the music there but when I heard there was a theatre performance here I had to rush for it. Once here, the sound outside feels attractive and I feel like I need to go out yet I am enjoying the drama,” said one patron, a tourist, from Canada we met during a drama performance.

Rise Arts performed a play titled From Jail to Wonderland, a critical piece which reflects on the political landscape. The play wonders whether the change in political leadership has any meaning, considering that the same problems are faced from one regime to another such as nepotism and tribalism.

Taking place in a room situated between two musical performance platforms, the play was not easy to follow, especially for those sitting a distance away. While the act seemed impressive, the sound competition in the surrounding area did not help matters.

In fact, it was an outright injustice to the act which survived on natural voices against high-pitched volumes from musical performances. Perhaps, in future organisers will have to consider arranging performances better to avoid such distractions.

The event is probably, the only festival that gives you a variety of activities at once, according to Times Group’s arts journalist Sam Banda Jnr.

“People have everything they want at one place. This is a self-contained festival” said Banda who was as busy as most patrons as he had to move from one place to another to capture all aspects of the festival

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