Every year HIFA comes up with a new theme. Its aim is to inspire, intrigue, trigger creativity and discussion. HIFA 2011's theme, The Engagement Party, exhorts all Zimbabweans and visiting Festival goers and artists to engage themselves fully, in art, culture, and life. Like each of HIFA's themes over its eleven years to date, 'The Engagement Party' theme can be interpreted on various different levels and in different ways, depending upon how it strikes each individual, whether metaphorical, symbolic, or on a surface level. The HIFA theme annually serves as an inspirational tool for the creative community, a message to engender excitement and anticipation about the up-coming Festival in the Festival goers, a useful marketing hook for the Festival's Investors who via financial injections, provision of goods and services, or a combination of each, help to make the Festival possible.
In choosing the theme, HIFA aimed to call on Zimbabweans to become fully immersed in and involved in the arts, in their communities, with one another across those communities, and in the grand, exciting celebration of art and life itself that the Festival is, each year. Becoming ENGAGED requires that we give undivided attention and focus to something about which we feel passionate. Zimbabweans are indeed passionate about arts, culture, celebration and enjoyment! On another level, The Engagement Party carries a message of becoming engaged across all sectors of society, all belief systems, viewpoints, of coming together, setting aside differences, and engaging fully and completely with one another.
HIFA is also, of course, a huge PARTY - every year! A gathering of tens of thousands of excited, happy people over six days, in celebration of artistic expression and endeavour, and of community. It brings Zimbabwean people and our visitors together in one place to engage with one another and celebrate all that's good about our amazing country, like no other phenomenon here, from so many different walks of life, socio economic circumstances, belief systems, viewpoints and persuasions. The carnival celebration of art and life that HIFA brings to our capital city, demonstrates palpably that we are all one large human Zimbabwean family with similar fears, joys and sorrows. This year, the theme calls us to ENGAGE with one another, hear each other, come together, celebrate, party!
HIFA chose the theme to get people thinking - and to encourage their creativity - as it does, all its themes, and as can be seen, it can prompt all sorts of threads of thought.
HIFA invites ALL Zimbabweans EVERYWHERE, no matter their walk of life, belief system, social echelon, income, age, or any other variable amongst our multi-faceted population, to ENGAGE. Engage with one another, engage with your community, engage with the artistic community, with our broader, multi-cultural, multi-lingual society, get involved, fully involved, and CELEBRATE. Celebrate our amazing, beautiful country, our strong, resilient people, our extraordinarily talented artists. It's an inspiring, joyful theme. Our artists have been inspired and ENGAGED by it, finding ingenious ways to tap into it and then, to create.