Siyaya in 2008 – A Look at the year ended……
Those that have been following Siyaya`s activities will definitely agree with us in saying that the year 2008 was a year for Siyaya. At the beginning of this year we sat down and agreed that 2008 should either make us or break us, a week before the end of the year and a week after the success of our Ibumba International Festival we gladly declared that the year “indeed made us”.
Before we reflect back to the start of the year, i think the end part deserves special mention first. From the time we sang with the kids at Womad and experienced Jay Zee at Glastonbury we were forced to fore gore our debut performance in Las Palmas due to certain technicalities beyond our control, the gigs were covered by our counterparts Umdumo Wesizwe. We jetted into Zimbabwe surprisingly in November to prepare for our festival that we had to make a success as it was to be our measuring stick for our 20th anniversary celebrations.
From the day we had our press launch, we knew the festival was to make it despite a lot of hardships. Running in three stages with a total of more than 75 acts both renowned and upcoming, Ibumba festival sailed through smoothly with Ndolwane Super Sounds, all the way from South Africa sealing the celebrations. More details about the festival are available at www.ibumbafestival.com
The festival marked the end of our year which started off as a slow year with a lot of inter-city performances in Oxford, York, Cambridge, Birmingham and Bath has slowly picked up to be a busy and promising year. The first major highlight of the year was our debut performance in Caceres, Spain at the WOMAD Festival, an amazing three days which saw us perform our concert version of the show OnkeOse and also conduct workshop in dance and music for audiences of more than 5000, an experience indeed as we had to work our way around the non-English-speaking audience.
June saw Siyaya in collaboration with Umdumo Wesizwe perform at the 3000-seater Swansea Grand Theatre in Wales and received a standing ovation for the performance of OnkeOse. Next stop was Leeds Carriageworks then the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Arts were we were lined up with the likes of Jay Zee, Amy Winehouse, James Blunt, Eddie Grunt and many other acts. At Womad Festival we sang with 140 kids at the main stage.
From the archives we had to retrieve our 1996 show ‘Zwelethu’ for the Newcastle audiences which premiered at Dance City on the 4th of July. From then came the month long Edinburgh fringe festival, from venue 127 OnkeOse got a sizzling three star review. At Zimfest we played alongside the great Oliver Mtukudzi, then we invaded the Scottish highlands with OnkeOse before coming back to South Yorkshire for various activities during Black History Month. Due to a lot of pressure we were compelled to call off our annual schools Eita festival as well as our Spanish tour as we opted to head home to prepare for the festival.
There could be no better way to sum up our year, we have seen it all, the highs and lows, broke new groups and set new trends, lifted the country’s flag high and sang with pride. like always we thank everyone for a great 2008 we salute Saimon Mambazo Phiri and SMP for the guidance and leadership, the executive at Siyaya Arts, the artists, The media, the venues and theatres, our supporters and friends, the list could be endless but we say Thanks to everyone that has touched us one way or the other. Siyaya always!
Thulani Javas Sibanda
Administrator & Press Liaison
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