Bayimba festivities kick off

Seven years back, when someone first came up with the idea for a Ugandan festival of arts, it obviously looked obscene. Knowing a typical Ugandan culture towards art, the idea was meant to fail.
In 2008, the first edition of the Bayimba International Festival of Arts was organized, though, even when it was free, we chose to stay away.
As years went on, the obscene idea became a cult with a very big following, elevating the festival from just a local festival but one of East Africa’s biggest meet for creative people.
This year, the festival’s calendar will officially open on 4th April with two workshops; one by Maisha Films and the other by KLA ART.
But the real fan starts on the 5th when the Bayimba Foundation team travels to Gulu for the first regional festival.
Introduced in 2010, the one-day series of Bayimba Regional Festivals of the Arts that are organized annually in towns with a view to uplift arts and culture across Uganda.
They provide a platform for artistic talents from the regions in Uganda while aiming at enhancing access to artistic and cultural expressions countrywide, thereby supporting the development of the local arts scene.
The event that will features both a day and night programme will be held at Gulu town’s Taks Centre.
Over the years, these regional shows have attracted huge numbers of budding rappers usually doing music in the native Langi and Acholi.
There will be more entertainment from the regional stars like Bosmic Otim and John Oweka, Coco Finger will cap it off at 11pm.
In 2013, four towns hosted these exciting multidisciplinary and this time round, the will go around Gulu, Jinja, Fortportal and Mbale, this will culminate into the Bayimba international Festival Of The Arts  to be held at the National Theatre on the 19th-21st September.