Zimfest Cape Town set for Jan 2010

"Zimfest is still on, we're looking at doing it early January though, still in Tulbagh, still the same venue and still a weekend affair," says Zukowski.

Getting involved with Zimfest

She's only been involved with Overtone since the beginning of 2009 and owns her own media company called ZuMedia Collective.

"That's how I actually got involved with Overtone. I brought my whole media company onboard and we've kind of been crossing borders on that level and it just clicked. Tristan (Tristan Waterkeyn, Overtone founder) went off to start the UK offices and the Dubai touring network and those have been going really well. We've got great artists lined up for next year that we're bringing down and sending up and the rest is just still happening," says Zukowski.

Zimfest is not just a South African affair. It began in the UK in 2001 and has since expanded to Australia, South Africa as well as Zimbabwe. South Africa hosted its first Zimfest in 2008 at the Good Hope Centre in Cape Town after the smaller venue, the Tafelberg Tavern exceeded capacity.

Increasing revenue for PASSOP

Last year's event broke even, according to Zukowski, so this year, organisers have been looking at other avenues of increasing proceeds for PASSOP (People against Suffering, Suppression, Oppression and Poverty) a community-based NGO that advocates for the rights of refugees.

"[Zimfest 2008] came out even so we had to look at other avenues for money going into PASSOP - because of the venue change at the last minute and certain issues that they had with the city council. This year we've been bringing in a lot of extra things; we've got a corporate market that's going to be happening at the festival; we've got CD sales, we've got artists dedicating tracks, so there's just so much more revenue coming in for PASSOP which is really great, apart from ticket sales," says Zukowski.

100% of the proceeds from Zimfest are directed to the events benefactor, PASSOP.

Why get involved with Zimfest?

"It was Tristan's pet project; Tristan is Zimbabwean himself, he's the founder of Overtone and he's always been involved in the UK festival and decided it's about time we do something here and since we're the closest to the root of the cause and it just kind of grew from there.

"There's been such a huge demand for it...we've been getting just a phenomenal response," says Zukowski.

Sponsorship

Apart from the unpredictable weather, that turned out fantastic, organisers experienced among other things, issues with sponsorship that caused the postponement of the festival. Current sponsors are MoneyGram, Zimbabwe's Econet, Mango Airlines among other international sponsors.

"We're still looking for more sponsors, it is a three-day festival and the costs do rake up in that sense but we've got Econet who's come on-board in a big way, so they're going to be doing a lot of the big marketing but they're also investing in bringing the headline artists. We've got Mango Airlines who are flying in artists from Johannesburg and flying in all the Zim artists as well," says Zukowski.

Zimfest 2008 was a one-day event that featured mostly Capetonian bands but this year organisers are putting together a three-day camping festival due to the demand says Zukowski: "There's such a demand for camping festivals and there aren't that many happening - they all fall into little clusters but really there is a demand for getting out of town and just being able to do your own thing."

Band selection

The band line-up for the event has almost been finalised with a few more artists still to come onboard. These include; Shamie, Heldervue, Chasing Friday, The Lottery Tickets, 3rd World Spectator, AB Turbo, Gwambe Stars, Earl Grey and Croquet, ETC Crew, Mr Cat and the Jackal, Nungarian, The Abbots Network, Verity and the Shades, Checked Zebra, Kings of Vegas, Jackie Kwenda, Red Tape Riot, The Stremes, Saintfearless, Cat String Theory, Tristan Waterkeyn and Toby 2 Shoes.

Band selection works on a public voting process whereby bands nominate themselves on the Zimfest website and the public voted on whether they wanted to see them play. The entire process, apart from the headline artist selection, takes place online.

"People are still voting; it's interesting to see who people want...the way we want to go and the venue wants to go with Zimfest instead of making it a rock festival or a pop festival and really sticking to a genre. It's interesting to see the kinds of bands coming to the foreground, because it's more about lifestyles, more about family, it's more about culture," says Zukowski.

Celebrating a good cause

"It's going to be one great weekend, camping vibe - the Kreef Hotel will be there if you're feeling like you need a little more luxury. It's a beautiful setting, beautiful venue. There's going to be day-trips happening around farms where people can go horse riding and those kinds of things, but ultimately it's a weekend of good food, and really great music and just coming together and celebrating a good cause."

For more information on Zimfest Cape Town, go to www.zimfest.co.za.
For more on PASSOP, go to http://passop.co.za/