Hurungwe Arts Festival

Volunteer with Hurungwe Arts Festival – 10th Edition | 24–26 July 2026 | Karoi, Zimbabwe

Got some free time this July and a passion for arts, culture, and community? Whether you’re an experienced events professional or an enthusiastic volunteer based in Zimbabwe or beyond, we’d love to have you on the Hurungwe Arts Festival team.

The Hurungwe Arts Festival is celebrating its 10th edition from 24–26 July 2026 in Karoi, and we’re looking for dedicated volunteers to help bring “Unleashing Potential, Amplifying Voices” to life.

Application Deadline: 30 May 2026

We’re recruiting volunteers across the following areas:

• Festival Ambassadors
• Marketing & Advertising
• Media, Publicity & Documentation
• Social Media & Digital Promotion
• Audience Relations & Information
• Guest Logistics & Hospitality
• Lighting & Sound / Technical Crew
• Set & Production Construction
• Stage Management & Prop Master
• Production Hosts / MCs
• Front of House & Venue Upkeep
• Nutrition & Catering
• Graphic Design
• IT Support

Why volunteer with HAF?
You’ll gain hands-on festival experience, connect with Zimbabwe’s creative community, and contribute to safeguarding Korekore Intangible Cultural Heritage while celebrating a decade of local talent.

Ready to be part of it? Apply by 30 May 2026 and join us in making Karoi a hub for artistic innovation.

CALL FOR ARTISTS — HURUNGWE ARTS FESTIVAL 2026
Deadline: 30 March 2026

We’re inviting Dance Groups, Musicians & Bands, Acrobatic Performers, Theatre Ensembles, and all Performing Arts Groups to be part of the Hurungwe Arts Festival 2026!

APPLY NOW!
Submit the following:
• Artist biography
• Latest live performance link
• 3 high-resolution photos
• Technical rider
• Piece description/Concept note
• Musicians must also include 3 audio tracks and an EPK.

The 10th edition of the Hurungwe Arts Festival is scheduled from 24th –26th July
2026 in the town of Karoi, Zimbabwe. We will again bring to life a true experience of the arts,
packed with creativity, passion and energy

Send your application to:
📧 hurungwe artsfestival@gmail.com
Be part of an unforgettable celebration of creativity and culture!

Hurungwe Arts Festival is an important benchmark for the consumption of the finest arts. Fourth week of July, Karoi comes alive as a vibrant and eventful town when an unparalleled feast of music, dance, theatre, film, and visual arts from renowned and upcoming artists is brought to Karoi.

This year’s theme is “Community togetherness – Safeguarding our intangible cultural heritage”. We embrace artists who look to the body, objects, space, and time for inspiration, research and practice. Dynamic programming, decidedly fearless and unique, aims to provoke thought and stimulate discourse surrounding performance art
In its seventh edition in 2022, a wide variety of known and upcoming artists from Hurungwe, Mashonaland and beyond have performed at the different stages of the Hurungwe Arts Festival. The 8th edition of the Hurungwe Arts Festival is scheduled from 26th – 28th July 2024 in the town of Karoi, Zimbabwe. We will again bring to life a true experience of the arts, packed with creativity, passion and energy.

Artists of all disciplines are invited to submit their applications to join for the 8th edition of the festival. Applications are accepted until 30th May 2024. You are requested to submit the following information (in case you submit your application by email, please limit your submission to 5MB):
A completed entry form Download: hurungwe-arts-festival-2024-entry-form
A profile/short biography (max. 800 words) with recent picture(s).
A presentation of your work (in case of music/film: one or two of your recordings on CD, DVD or MP3)
A technical rider/data sheet
We will confirm receipt of your submission and assess your application. Please note that due to the many submissions received, we will only be able to respond to successful applicants.
A modest performance fee will be offered to participating artists. For artists from outside Zimbabwe modest accommodation, local transport and per diem will be provided. Artists from outside Zimbabwe are encouraged to source for support to cover travel, visa and insurance expenses. Artists selected will receive a formal invitation to facilitate the solicitation for such support.
We thank you for your interest in participating in the Hurungwe Arts Festival and look forward to welcoming you to Hurungwe’s premium multi-arts event!

Disclaimer: Hurungwe Arts Festival fully respects and protects copyright of artistic submissions received.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS HURUNGWE ARTS FESTIVAL 8th EDITION, 26-28 July 2024KAROI, ZIMBABWE

Hurungwe Arts Festival is an important benchmark for the consumption of the finest arts. Fourth week of July, Karoi comes alive as a vibrant and eventful town when an unparalleled feast of music, dance, theatre, film, and visual arts from renowned and upcoming artists is brought to Karoi. This year’s theme is “The return – Reviving our intangible cultural heritage”. We embrace artists who look to the body, objects, space, and time for inspiration, research and practice. Dynamic programming, decidedly fearless and unique, aims to provoke thought and stimulate discourse surrounding performance art. In its sixth edition in 2019, a wide variety of known and upcoming artists from Hurungwe, Mashonaland and beyond have performed at the different stages of the Hurungwe Arts Festival. The 7th edition of the Hurungwe Arts Festival is scheduled from 29th – 31stJuly 2019 in the town of Karoi, Zimbabwe. We will again bring to life a true experience of the arts, packed with creativity, passion and energy.Artists of all disciplines are invited to submit their applications to join for the 6th edition of the festival. Applications are accepted until 30th May 2022. You are requested to submit the following information (in case you submit your application by email, please limit your submission to 5MB):A completed entry form Download: https://hurungweartsfestival.home.blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/call-for-artists-hurungwe-arts-festival-2022.docx A profile/short biography (max. 800 words) with recent picture(s).A presentation of your work (in case of music/film: one or two of your recordings on CD, DVD or MP3)A technical rider/data sheet. We will confirm receipt of your submission and assess your application. Please note that due to the many submissions received, we will only be able to respond to successful applicants.A modest performance fee will be offered to participating artists. For artists from outside Zimbabwe modest accommodation, local transport and per diem will be provided. Artists from outside Zimbabwe are encouraged to source for support to cover travel, visa and insurance expenses. Artists selected will receive a formal invitation to facilitate the solicitation for such support.We thank you for your interest in participating in the Hurungwe Arts Festival and look forward to welcoming you to Hurungwe’s premium multi-arts event!Disclaimer: Hurungwe Arts Festival fully respects and protects copyright of artistic submissions received.

By Joel Zilala

The 18th edition NAMA nominee Obert Chari will be performing at this year’s encounter of Hurungwe Arts Festival in July.

ZCC Hakireni Stars frontman became popular on the showbiz after their song Mebo made headlines in music circles. After failing to make it at the previous edition, Hugh Chinhengo, the band manager insisted that they will make it this time.

Obert Chari comes from Bikita. He attended school in school in Zvishavane. He started singing in various choirs at ZCC Mbungo. In 2012 he eventually he worked on his own project and released an album called Ngoma Yababa. His early albums were not successful. Mainstream success came with the song Mebo after a video of the song released in 2018 went viral. He had released 3 albums,
Ngoma Yababa (2012), Vaporofita Venhema (2015), Mariyambutsa (2017) before Wanganella (2018)

Chari said that the song Mebo is a true story that actually happened to him. He is now married to Mebo. The real Mebo however doesn’t feature in the song. The Hakireni Stars band which consists of his three siblings, Estery, Darlington and Lamboth.The girl who plays the role of Mebo in the song’s video is called Petronellah Kapeyapeya and she was a backing vocalist on the song. She also stays in Chegutu and she met Chari at church.

Other members of the group are, Nomagugu Sibanda-dancer vocalist,
Charles Marapira- dancer vocalist
Edson December – Bassist,
Cephas Palula- Rythmist
Joseph Matarauka- Lead guitarist and
Luckmore Ngwerume -Drumer.

The famous Madiz of “Kazevezeve” fame will rock fans at this year’s edition.

Itayi Madzikura also known as Madiz did his primary education at Bumburwi primary school and secondary at Matinunura High school . Whilst at school, Madiz was a member of the school choir and Marimba band and that is where he discovered that ho was an artist and never stopped until today.

As dancing was also his passion, Madiz joined a dance group called the Return after high school. He was inspired by artists such as Leonard Zhakata, Paul Matavire, Penny Penny, Peter Tinet, Lucky Dube and R Kelly. Later he formedJoyful Repenters as a church youth group to do music and dance. They recorded a gospel music album which was not accepted by Gramma Records for poor quality.

This did not deter Madiz to pursue his artistic prowess. In 2004 he met Nasty tricks and did acollaboration song ” Kupinda newe”. He later released “chimoko chidanger” which became a hit and was recorded at baseline studios by Tony G.

He continued with music and recorded “Amina”, again it made waves the whole of zimbabwe and started to be played in South Africa, Zambia and Mozambique. It was nominated at ZIMA awards 2005.

In 2006 he went to recorded the whole album “Kazevezeve” which also have a DVD. This made Madiz a household name for local Rhumba fans after it became number three on video of the year awards.

To date Madiz has done collaborations with Slizer from Botswana, and Kudzi Nyakudya. He also toured UK in 2014 and performed in Shefield, Bermingam, Leister and Coventry city. His latest release 2018 called “Chamhamha” is currently hitting the airwaves.

Born in Kampala – Uganda, Peter Lubenga commonly known as Sparrow is set to express his street art on the public walls of Karoi during the Hurungwe Arts Festival 6th edition in July 2019.

Sparrow is the founder of Afri-cans Street Art Festival. He is a street art artist, activist, photographer and teacher who was inspired by different street artists, where he gained the courage to start practicing art, which later became his career.

Sparrow’s use of spray can paint and basic paints creates expressive artistic visuals that beautify spaces for communities and spreads street art knowledge, impacting the community and societies positively.

Sparrow is also founder and Photographer of Lubega Photography He has been involved in a number community projects which includes , Klaart Festival, Kampala – 2018, Goma Dance Festival – Congo, 2018, Streetlights Exhibition, 2018 – Annual exhibition and charity event dedicated to celebrate , empower and encourage the street children. Art in Movement, Uganda – 2019.
Break Dance Project, Uganda, ongoing Off the Wall Graffiti in Ethiopia, 2017, Batalo East Dance Festival, 2016 – Photographer and Dancer, Alliance Francaise – Kampala and International School of Uganda – Hip-hop and Graffiti coach, 2016-2018. Arts Envoy 2018 – Hip-hop event organized by American Embassy of Uganda and Break Dance Project Uganda. Graffiti Tugabane 2018 – An open day workshop, and hip-hop event organised by African Street Art Festival and Geothe Zentrum – Kampala, A three month Public Art Festival organized by the 32°EAST ART TRUST .Bayimba Music and Art Festival 2016.

Gerry Sikazwe is a Zambian poet, blogger, and literary promoter. His works have featured on diverse spaces, online and print, such as Nthanda Review, AfricanWriter.com, Dissident Voice, In Between Hangovers, Spillwords.com, SprinkleStoriez, Tipton Poetry Journal, Mamba 7, Best of Africa, Best New African Poets 2018 Anthology, Times of Zambia (Sunday Edition), Scarlet Leaf Review, Tuck Magazine, The Zimbabwe We Want Anthology, UBA Zambia Poetry Contest 2017, And So Yeah, Afro Curators, and is forthcoming in Kalahari Review.

Besides Page Poetry, he also speaks and reads his verses in many places around Lusaka, notable being Word Smash Poetry, a monthly Poetry Social movement he co-curates at Global Platform Zambia. He runs a Creative Writing enterprise, Nib Hub Zambia, that aims to improve the quality of Zambian Creative writing. To this end he has for 7 months been running a Zambian based literary journal called New Ink Review.

Gerry Sikazwe was recently published in Poetry by Mwanaka Media and Publishing, a Zimbabwean publishing company. He is Poetry collection is titled “Words That Matter”, and it can be bought online.

Not as a musician but a spoken word therapist, Lusaka born Poetess Vanessa Chisakula will this year add her voice to Hurungwe’s premium arts event in July.

Vanessa is a provocative spoken page ‘n’word artist and prolific writer. Her humble background and life experiences are a source of material for her as she considers expressing herself from real life experiences has realer connections.

She considers poetry as a voice she never had, a podium of life’s lessons she gets to distribute..!!!
She wrote a movie in grade seven (a memory she narrates with chuckles as well as unbelief towards such big dreams early on in life) and that’s how her writing career began. Her first spoken word piece unfortunately never left the four walls of her room. It almost became the story with her spoken word ‘Sex’ Poem as she had recorded it and kept it in the studio for one year before she could let the world hear it.
Her poetic journey officially begun in 2018 as she stands fearless and ready to fight to see her dreams of being heard come true. Vanessa has done invitational performances for Action Aid Zambia during their CSO training, at the launch of their Country Strategy Paper, and at the launch of the partnership between Action Aid and SIDA. More invitational performance include the Center for Trade Policy and Development Zambia and Hivo’s Zambia. She has also performed at the Commemoration of the Annual Anti Drug Day 2018. She appears at the monthly Poet Spring at Alliance Françoise and is also a bona fide performing member at the Word Smash Poetry Movement.
She writes her pieces according to what she feels and also focuses on issues that are around the country and the world at large, defined as an artist who considers no boundaries in her art.