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Bongani Ndlovu, Showbiz Correspondent

NEXT year’s Roil Bulawayo Arts Awards (RoilBAAs) will be held in summer to make the show more appealing.

Over the years, the ceremony has been held in June, making it difficult for many to bring out their A-game in terms of fashion because of the chilly weather.

As a result, some have failed to make it to the event while those who do, often catch colds afterwards.

Organisers of the awards have taken heed of this and decided to hold the event in August.

In a thank you note to all those who supported the awards, the spokesperson of the Bulawayo Arts Awards Trust (BAA Trust), Nkululeko Nkala, said they had heeded the call by people who bemoaned that the cold weather hindered them from expressing themselves on the red carpet.

“After the just ended 2019 edition, the awards are going to experience a huge facelift starting 2020 and onwards. First, the BAA Trust and United Refineries have agreed to move the dates of the awards to a warmer month to allow attendees to show off as much as they want in terms of fashion.

“This decision comes after complaints about the cold weather during the recently held awards ceremony,” said Nkala.

He said next year’s awards would be held at the end of August and encouraged artistes to start producing exceptional works of art for consideration.

“With the 2020 awards set for end of August, we encourage artistes to start working and producing excellent works.

We also call upon traditional partners to continue supporting this noble initiative of keeping Bulawayo as a trendsetter as far as the arts are concerned.”

During the awards this year, the cumbersome ZITF Exhibition Centre Hall 4 muffled the sound and it was difficult for those inside to hear proceedings on stage. For this reason, Nkala said they were moving the awards to another venue.

“The awards will be moving to another venue, not as big as Hall 4, but big enough and with better acoustics.

They will, however, still be held at the Exhibition Centre,” said Nkala.

To tighten the programme which some felt was unnecessarily long, the categories will be trimmed down to 40 from 50.
“The awards will be trimmed down from 50 categories to 40 so as to focus on quality rather than quantity.

This, hopefully, will also make the ceremony itself shorter and more entertaining. Also, we’ll soon be introducing pre-awards events.”

The pre-award events, Nkala said, will be used to whet the public’s appetite.

“These pre-awards events will showcase products nominated for the awards and hopefully, give the public a taste of what the awards will be celebrating.

“All these changes are meant to improve the quality of the awards as a whole as we push towards making RoilBAAs the ultimate awards ceremony in the country,” said Nkala.

In terms of sponsorship, Nkala said their door was always open for new partnerships.

“More importantly, the BAA trust continues to look for new partnerships and support as it endeavours to make Bulawayo Arts Awards, not just bigger and better, but the best artistic experience one can ever get in the country.”