Nearly 2 000 participants were at the two-day event which saw 269 performances and 90 fringe events take place.
Seventy-three institutions participated in 273 competition entries. Three bands led by mentally and physically challenged participants competed alongside their able-bodied counterparts.
The theme of this year’s festival was ‘Hope for the Future’.
“With so much turmoil going on in our country and the world at large, the one thing we can hold on to is hope,” said festival director Joan Lithgow,
‘Hope for the future, hope for our country, hope for the people of our land’ – these were the words of the marimba, steelpan, choir and djembe compositions written by Lithgow.
This was also one of the highlights to celebrate the theme of the festival.
Education Africa, in partnership with St Dominic’s and in association with the High Commission of Trinidad and Tobago, hosted this prestigious event.
Marimbas and steelpans started arriving at the festival in the early hours of the morning on July 28.
By the time the festival started at 8am on Saturday (July 29), there were over 250 marimbas and steelpans on the floor.
At the main event, marimba and steelpan competitions took place throughout the two days. Bands in different sections and age categories competed for the coveted trophies and wonderful, sponsored prizes.
The fringe events have become an integral part of the festival with people queuing in the hope of getting into various workshops which included gumboot dancing, Tswana dancing, Bollywood Beats and much more.
There was also a composition competition for three age categories.
There were only three entries – two entries in the adult section and one in the scholar section.
The adjudicators were impressed with the standard of the compositions, which were all judged ‘blind’.
