Organisers of Gaborone Arts Festival, a major event designed as a platform for Batswana artists to showcase their local talent, were left disappointed over the weekend by the poor turnout.
“The low turnout of visitors and artist who refused to participate shows ignorance,” said Ouma Rammidi the event organiser.
The Gaborone Arts Festival failed to attract the huge numbers as anticipated.
Rammidi said artists do not realise that the festival is a platform dedicated to support artists from all walks of life to gather, network, get exposure, be inspired and get empowered to change their lives.
“We invited over one thousand artists to participate at the festival and only ten responded, which is disappointing,” she said.
The bigger picture for this platform is to introduce, promote and brand Botswana arts and crafts in the local and international markets.
Rammidi said its time Batswana start to realise that the creative industry is now one of the leading lights in the global economy.
She said in spite of appreciation of art locally being in its infancy the mindset needs to be changed.
“The aim of organising this event was to bring the entire artists together so that they could interact and share ideas,”she said.
Rammidi said they were expecting a huge crowd this year but was however optimistic that next year it will be bigger and better. “We need people to understand that the aim of this festival is to make people appreciate arts,” she said.
