By Phesheya Mkhonta
The 5th edition of the Standard Bank Eswatini Luju Food and Lifestyle Festival was successfully launched on Friday evening.
The launch took place at House on Fire in Mahlanya and was graced by notable attendees who include; the Minister of Tourism & Environmental Affairs, Moses Vilakati, the Minister of Sports, Culture & Youth Affairs, Harris Bulunga, the MP for Lobamba Lomdzala, Marwick Khumalo, Standard Bank Chairman of the Board of Directors, Standard Bank Eswatini Chief Executive (CE), sponsors and other valuable partners.
This year’s Festival theme is Design Gastronomy in the Culinary Space and African Fashion Folktales in the Fashion arena.
Programme Directors on the night were highly talented Phila Dlamini and the eloquent Anele Tshabalala. The duo noted that this year’s theme talks to the continents’ rich history.
“In keeping with the Luju ethos, “A Return to the African Future”, which magnifies Africa’s rich history as a constant inspiration for creative transformation, our Fashion Theme for this year is African Fashion Folktales, where craft mastery and sustainable materials become mediums for the reclaiming of ancestral stories and, through interweaving these tales of our past, and present, we reimagine our future.”
Standard Bank Eswatini Chief Executive, Muselelo Fakudze when making his remarks appreciated the support they have received from emaSwati over the past editions and promised that they will continue to grow the Festival.
“Going forward, the Standard Bank Luju Food & Lifestyle Festival will form the hub of a coordinated, regional, cross-cultural collaboration network, in partnership with the Standard Bank Group. The aim is to create linkages between Southern African Standard Bank-supported arts and culture events to facilitate reciprocal cultural exchanges that foster arts mobility and small business empowerment throughout the region.”
The CE added “Standard Bank Eswatini and the Luju Team will drive this initiative, reflecting our collective commitment to the promotion of the arts and creative cultural tourism. This will be a uniquely Southern African affair, with event partners and participants from Mozambique, South Africa, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and Botswana, with Eswatini at the centre.”
The event programme directors further revealed that so far, Luju has partnered with the Stanbic Bank, Jacaranda Music Festival in Zimbabwe, and the Lesotho Tourism Festival (Letofe), both supported by the Standard Bank Group, as well as House on Fire festival partner Azgo in Mozambique.
The bank believes that the culinary, fashion, and music artist exchanges resulting from this regional synergy will assist in boosting the local creative economy through increased international tourism and artist exchanges, allowing the Luju festival ecosystem to continue helping to sustain the thousands of emaSwati who directly or indirectly benefit from Luju’s contribution to both domestic and international tourism.
Also making remarks on the day was the Minister of Sports, Culture, and Youth Affairs, Harries Bulunga.
The Minister thanked Standard Bank Eswatini for the continuous support towards the arts sector in the country.
“I would like to commend Standard Bank Eswatini for continuing to invest in the local arts and SME space through this festival. It is pleasing to note that this event helps the government in terms of assisting the arts and creative sectors. This event helps bring international stars which enables our local artists to network and also learn a lot from them.
The Minister continued “We also applaud the bank for the CSI component as we are aware that every ticket sold helps in assisting small-scale rural farmers in the country. This is highly commendable as we all know that SMEs are the drivers of any economy.”
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