Arts Review

Written by: Goitsemang Mokoena

Over the past three years the National Marimba Festival has proven to be a force to be reckoned with and this year’s event promises to be even better. The festival - organised by the National Marimba Foundation – has brought music lovers and marimba players together year-after-year to take pleasure in the harmonious sound this rare African instrument makes. This year the festival kicks off on Saturday 26 and will go on until Sunday 27 July at St Dominic Catholic school in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg.

Festival organizers are once again expecting a large turnout this weekend: this year they’ve upped the stakes by inviting more than 900 marimba players from all over Africa to take part in the event. Audiences are sure to be enthralled as the rhythmic sounds of this indeginous instrument takes them through a journey that resembles the true spirit of African music. Marimbas have been neglected over the years and are hardly played in festivals across the continent. It is through this magnificent festival that marimba music remains alive.

“The Marimba Festival is the realisation of our dream to bring like minded people together to celebrate marimba playing and the value it adds to our lives,” says Joan Lithgow of Marimba Education Foundation. Her business partner, Helde Gordon, adds that the National Marimba Foundation intends to help marimba schools and institutions where resources are lacking. They strongly believe that there is a need for the enjoyment of music making in our society, something that is lacking.

Tickets for the festival cost R65 per person for the whole weekend.