Performances during past Ubumuntu Arts Festival/ Photo Ubumuntu
Due to COVID-19 pandemic, Ubumuntu arts festival audience won’t be able to convene at the theater for the plays; instead, organizers have referred them to social media platforms as the festival goes virtual.
This year’s 6th edition of Ubumuntu arts festival was postponed due to Covid-19 pandemic effects and the organizers are busy working on strategies of keeping their audience entertained through live streams on social media platforms.
Speaking to KT Press, Ubumuntu arts founder, Hope Azeda revealed that, the festival has changed to Ubumuntu virtual arts festival to embrace the technology world.
“The festival is not happening. For 2020, we are changing it to Ubumuntu virtual arts festival and we will live stream it. Our audience is global not only Rwandese and we will share a press release when ready with adjustments,” says Hope Azeda.
She also appealed to the government through Rwanda Development Board (RDB) to support the industry with great infrastructure.
“Let the government provide us with state of art infrastructures like studios and especially internet. Our lives depend on the internet today. Imagine how life would be if this global crisis of Covid-19 continues without such infrastructure,” she added.
Virtual art is made of many computer programs and has no boundaries, so it uses animations, movies, computer games and so on. As it becomes more and more popular and important, it results in people being able to live another virtual life.
Ubumuntu arts festival aims at telling humanity stories through theater as well as workshops to share knowledge on arts and drama.
The maiden festival of Ubumuntu arts festival kicked off in 2015 and it attracted thousands of revelers both from local, regional and international scene who convened at Kigali genocide memorial Amphitheater.
Countries like USA, Canada, Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania, Sri lanka, Lebanon and Egypt, Zimbabwe, Kenya participated alongside Rwanda’s kings of drama Mashirika, who are main actors at Ubumuntu arts festival.
Mashirika has had successful productions on the national and international scene, among them is Mukosi a campaign skit on reproductive health for Delivery of Improved Services for Health (DISH) and the Family Planning Association of Uganda (FPAU).
