Background to the National Marimba Festival

The National Marimba Festival started as a means to an end for the Marimba Education Foundation.

In 2005 when the Foundation came into being, we became aware that, as a fledgling NGO, we needed to create a profile for our foundation, and more particularly, draw the public and potential funders' attention to the unique experience that the marimba offers to players and audience alike. At this point we established a partnership with St Dominic's Catholic School for Girls in Boksburg, and the first National Marimba Festival was held at the school in 2006.

Six years later, the National Marimba Festival is a well established event on the arts calendar. Over this time, we have been supported by close to one hundred schools and institutions from all over SA, with the attendance having risen to around 1000 participants annually.

While the Foundation's emphasis has always been on participation, the festival takes the form of a competition. This competitive aspect, together with the opportunity for cross-pollination of ideas, styles and repertoire, has pushed the standards of playing and the levels of creativity way beyond our expectation.

Every year the festival participants converge on Boksburg, representing all walks of life and a variety of cultures from within the South African community. In this way, the Marimba Education Foundation has been able to meet our commitment to fostering nation-building and social cohesion.

Over the years we have been graciously supported by SAMRO, The Nedbank Arts and Culture Trust, Upana Projects, National Arts Council, Lovemore Music, Polliacks, Marshall Music, The Marimba Workshop and AMI (African Musical Instruments) as well as several smaller businesses and private individuals. We are incredibly grateful for this support. In 2010 Lotto became the first major sponsor for the Festival, and in 2011 Absa generously filled this role. These sponsorships have enabled money earned from the Festival to go directly to supporting MEF's growing range of activities in various communities.

We are humbled by the unprecedented success of the National Marimba Festival, which has given us the leverage to pursue the mission and vision of the Foundation. Since 2009, we have been successful in procuring funding for our broader aim of establishing marimba groups and promoting marimba playing in under-resourced areas. We believe that he National Marimba Festival will go from strength to strength and we thank all participants, teachers, parents and sponsors for their incredible support.

We look forward to seeing you at St Dominic's, Boksburg on 28th and 29th July 2012!