Storymoja Hay Festival
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| Country and Region | Kenya — Nairobi Province |
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| Type of Festival | Drama, Music |
| Location of Festival | Nairobi, Nairobi Province, Kenya |
| Festival Address Information | Storymoja Africa |
| Festival Description | The Storymoja Hay Festival is a three and a half day international celebration of ideas, stories, writing and culture through books, live discussion forums, storytelling, skits, music, demonstrations, workshops, open-mike sessions, debates, exhibitions, live performances and competitions. The festival is modelled on The Hay Festival held in the UK every May in which up to 100,000 people attend — ranging from presidents to authors to fans. The Hay Festival organises several festivals in Alhambra (Spain) Cartagena (Colombia) Segovia (Spain) Brecon Jazz (Wales). The Storymoja Hay Festival will the first international festival of ideas held in Nairobi, and will run as a partnership between Storymoja, an emerging local company, and 22 year-old, Hay Festival (UK). The festival is held in a temporary ‘tented city’ and includes a main stage for live performances and competitions, and themed tents in which 4-6 two-hour events are held concurrently. The events are intended to generate public debate around critical issues facing East Africa including Literature, Environment, Gender, IT, Health, Diversity, Finance, Entrepreneurship, Culture, Beauty and Self-Development. Headline stars like Achim Steiner, Vikram Seth, Hanif Kureshi attracted audiences and media attention this year August. Music and various competitions ensure a mixed crowd, celebratory ambiance, and attract extensive, positive local and international media coverage. |
| Festival Dates | October 1 - 4, 2009 |
| Festival Links |
Festival Story:
Storymoja, a publishing company formed in 2007 by five writers committed to spreading the gospel of reading, writing and ideas, has held two previous annual festivals to promote books - dubbed Storymoja Nyamachoma Fiesta. We actively nurture partnerships and work closely with various organizations from different sectors. Our 2008 event attracted 2200 people. The 2009 Storymoja Hay Festival utilized and built on that experience, it attracted about 6000 people . It definitely is the next step in achieving our Storymoja mission of getting ‘A book in every hand.’ What is the purpose of the Storymoja Hay Festival?
The festival hopes to encourage Africans to ‘own’ their problems by exploring our situations/stories, and search for solutions by generating platforms for discussion and debate. To achieve our 2030 vision, Kenyans need to read widely, discuss ideas, and exploit our diversity of stories/backgrounds for the greater good. It is also part of a longer term campaign to get East Africa to value reading, writing and ideas in general.
Festival Events:
Programming highlights:
- An array of African and international luminaries
- New generation writers from Kenya and the continent
- IT and innovation range of activities featuring animation
- Exhibitions and demonstrations of the latest gadgets and gizmos.
- Key discussions/debates/presentations/interviews featuring writers/thinkers
- Performances by one major international music star
- Cookery demonstrations featuring local and international culinary stars
- Mchongoano, Storytelling and Spelling Bee competitions
- A program of exciting activities for children – storytelling, skits, craft, puppet shows, field games, cartoon characters walkabout, singing, spoken word, mchoangoano competition etc.
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