The much awaited Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) kicks off today with a line up of shows in different genres.

Though some shows especially theatre and craft are already underway, the festival will officially open tonight at 7:30 in Harare Gardens on the Telecel Mainstage. The opening show, Light Up The Darkness will set tone to Harare’s premier art fête with collaborative acts by different artists performing at this year’s festival. The show combines dance, theatre, music, spoken word, craft as well as visual arts.

Light Up The Darkness draws its inspiration from this year’s theme, Switch On. It narrates and tells of the determined attempts of two dung beetles to scale the heights of a rock with their precarious cargo. The concept resonates with the continued quest and search for enlightenment within Zimbabwe’s artistic community.

The show is directed by multi-award winning American director Brooke Ciardelli while South African music icon Steve Dyer will be directing music. HIFA founder and artistic director Manuel Bagorro said “Feel it, it is here. We hope that by now everyone is already switched on and it will be a very fascinating and entertaining week of fun and exchange of ideas.” He said there is an exciting line up of artist in different mediums that are ready to wow Harare.

HIFA runs until Sunday at different venues around the city. For more information on the program and show prices visit www.hifa.co.zw.

Picture: HIFA directors and partners at the final press conference held yesterday. Present are the Ambassadors from Denmark, Norway, the European Union, and America as well as HIVOS – a key NGO partner, and Telecel which is the main corporate sponsor for 2014.