Online applications to perform and teach at Zimfest 2015 close Sunday March 15. If you have been thinking about applying, now is the time for action! Log in at 2015.zimfest.org and do it – tell us what you’d like to teach, or who your band is. We are especially looking for dance, drumming, language, karimba (nyunga nyunga) and cultural presentation workshops.
Zimfest 2015: Enduring Rhythms ~ Gathering in Harmony
The Zimfest 2015 Organizing Committee
Beware, the Ides of March cometh! Online applications to perform and teach at Zimfest 2015 are due March 15! This year’s festival runs from August 13 to 16 and will take place at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, just west of Salem. We are hoping to see lots of performing groups from Portland and Eugene this year, and teachers from all over. Submit your applications now, don’t wait until the last minute! Please address any questions to or .
Apply Online at https://2015.zimfest.org
On behalf of the Zimfest Association,
—Zimfest Coordinator Claire Jones
(P.S. — Don’t forget Zimfest Association is now registered to receive donations when people shop at AmazonSmile. You can support the festival by choosing Zimfest Association as the organization you would like to receive 0.5% of the price of your eligible purchases at AmazonSmile.)
Minutes from the February 8th meeting of the Zimfest Association board of directors have been posted.
Dear Zimfest Community,
It’s time to submit your Zimfest 2015 applications online! Teacher and performer applications are available now at https://2015.zimfest.org. The due date for applications is March 15, 2015.
Please be advised that we are using Google accounts for login this year; When you log in, you will be prompted to sign in using a Google account, and we recommend that you use a Gmail account if you already have one. Alternatively, you may register a Google account for an email address of your choice (including third-party providers such as Yahoo) by following these directions: https://accounts.google.com/SignUp.
Be sure to mark your calendars for the 2015 Zimbabwean Music Festival August 13-16th at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, OR. The theme for this year’s festival is “Enduring Rhythms ~ Gathering in Harmony.”
If you are artistically inclined, there is still time to submit designs and artwork to be used on Zimfest promotional material. For more info, see our previous blog post Zimfest 2015 Theme and Call for Artwork Submissions.
Please remember that the festival needs your volunteer help! If you are interested in volunteering, please write
Best regards on behalf of the 2015 Organizing Committee,
Claire Jones
2015 Zimfest Coordinator
Minutes from the January 11th meeting of the Zimfest Association board of directors have been posted.
Greetings Zimfest Community,
Zimfest 2015 will celebrate the theme “Enduring Rhythms ~ Gathering in Harmony.” In choosing this theme, the 2015 organizing committee has been inspired by the power of Zimbabwean music and dance to bring people together and build community. We are inviting you to submit designs and artwork related to this theme for use on the Zimfest 2015 poster, Festival Guide, t-shirts and other promotional material. Your design should also reference Zimbabwean performing art in one or more of its many manifestations (marimba, mbira, dance, etc.).
Please submit your designs electronically to by March 1, 2015. The organizing committee will make its selections by March 15, 2015. Send your artwork via e-mail as a high-resolution image in digital format (JPG preferred); do not embed the image into a Power Point or PDF. Please include your full name and telephone number with your submission. If your image is chosen as the principal design for this year’s festival, you will receive an honorarium of $100 and a Zimfest 2015 t-shirt. The winning artist will be featured in the Festival guide. In addition, full credit will be given to other artists whose submissions are used elsewhere.
The artwork will be judged on the following criteria:
Legal Considerations:
By submitting your work to the 2015 Organizing Committee, you grant the Zimfest Association an irrevocable, perpetual license to reproduce the submitted work in whole or in part in any medium, electronic, physical or otherwise. You must be willing to modify or allow a graphic artist to alter the winning entry for use on our printed materials. The original work will become the property of Zimfest Association, who will assume all rights to future reproduction of the work for promotional and fundraising purposes.
See you in Monmouth, OR in August!
Zimfest 2015 Organizing Committee
Dear Zimfest Association Friends and Members:
We hope that you are all doing well and have already marked your calendars for August 13-16th, 2015 for the next Zimbabwean Music Festival which will be held at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, Oregon. Our festival coordinator, Claire Jones, is in the process of recruiting an organizing committee. Please reach out to her at if you are able to help.
In addition, the board is recruiting new members and officers–and particularly looking for one or more individuals with financial skills. Please contact us to learn more at . We also encourage you to review recent board activities on the Zimfest blog.
This is the second year of our Annual Campaign and Membership Drive. As noted last year, no organization can survive without financial support, and the Zimfest Association is no different. While the annual festivals provide some income to the Association, these funds are unpredictable and are insufficient to sustain and grow the Association. For example, in 2014 the festival did not turn a profit and lost roughly $2500. For this reason, the Association was not able to make charitable donations to other organizations which support Zimbabwe.
Beginning last year, we changed the way membership to the Zimfest Association is handled. The term of membership now runs for a full calendar year from January 1st until December 31st. Our goal is to have all recurring Zimfest participants be members of the organization. The minimal fee of $25 will allow a Regular member to attend the festival without paying a registration fee of $12. In addition to Regular memberships, Family, Couple, Teacher and Lifetime memberships are also available. Members may choose to have their names published on the website and in the Festival Guide. Please refer to the Membership page to renew or initiate a membership. It is our hope that a healthy dialogue about the festival and association can emerge from a membership that feels a sense of ownership in the Zimfest Association.
While fees from membership are a great start, our long term financial stability will take more money than membership fees alone can raise. For this reason, we are also soliciting tax-deductible donations to the Zimfest Association. Over the past year, we raised nearly $10,000 in donations which have proven invaluable to ensure our financial health. Please consider a donation to help the Association continue its efforts to put on the best Zimbabwean music festival in North America. Your contributions really do make a difference! If your company supports matching donations, please don’t forget to complete the paperwork which would allow your company to match your contribution–often dollar for dollar.
We hope that you will seriously consider becoming a member of the Zimfest Association for the 2015 calendar year, as well as making or enabling a charitable contribution. If each Zimfest member can find a willing donor within your extended network we will be well on our way towards sustainability! Your contributions are tax-deductible either in the 2014 or 2015 tax year, depending on when you make your payment. Please visit our Membership and Donation page on our website for instructions on how to make a contribution.
Finally, we’d like to remind you of two ways that you can donate to Zimfest on a ongoing basis. First, when shopping on Amazon you can support Zimfest by choosing Zimfest Association as the organization you would like to receive 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases (see blog post Support Zimfest When You Shop at Amazon.com). Also, for anyone who sells items on EBay, you can choose to donate a percentage of the final sales price to the Zimfest Association. See http://givingworks.ebay.com/charity-auctions/my-causes for more information.
Thanks for all that you do to make Zimfest a success.
Best wishes for a wonderful holiday season…
—The Zimfest Association Board
Minutes from the December 14th meeting of the Zimfest Association board of directors have been posted.
The Zimfest Association Board and I recently made the announcement that the 2015 Zimbabwean Music Festival will be held at Western Oregon University in Monmouth OR, August 13-16, 2015. I am happy to say that the Tech Committee has been working hard to improve the website and online registration system; we are targeting mid-January for online applications to open on the festival website at https://2015.zimfest.org. There is much to do before that date, and I have been recruiting team members to work on the Zimfest Organizing Committee for the past month. It really does take a village—we are in desperate need of people who can give up some time and energy to make the next Zimfest a great one! Helping out with the annual festival is a great way to give back for all the joy and enrichment you have experienced through this wonderful music.
If you have the time and commitment, volunteer for the core organizing committee, members of which meet regularly via skype and take responsibility for major areas of the festival: Teacher and Workshop Scheduling, Concert planning and production, Marketplace and Vendors Coordination, Volunteer Coordinator.
If you have small chunks of time, there are many other tasks that you can do leading up to (as well as at) the festival: publicity and marketing; festival guide article and ad solicitation, proofreading, editing and production; website content proofing and updating; T-shirt production and sales; airport pickups/drop-offs.
If you are a group that would like to work on a project together, I envision several opportunities: work party to put together registration packets; festival decorations; festival signage; festival site cleanup crew.
Please let me know if and how you can help: e-mail claire [at] zimfest {dot} org
Claire Jones
Zimfest Coordinator
Dear Zimfest Community,
The Zimfest Board and I are pleased to announce the dates and location for next year’s festival. Zimfest 2015 will be held August 13-16, 2015 at Western Oregon University. WOU is a campus of about 6,000 located in Monmouth, OR, 20 minutes west of the capital, Salem. We are happy to return the festival to Oregon, in a location that is nearly equidistant from Portland and Eugene—an easy 75 minute drive from either city. Monmouth is in the heart of the beautiful Willamette Valley, wine country, with easy access to the Oregon coast.
The Grove at WOU, Potential Zimfest Marketplace Site
We realize that we are somewhat late in announcing these dates to you, and want to let you know that we have been researching potential Zimfest sites not only for 2015 but for future festivals as well. It has become more and more difficult to find the facilities we require for a full festival at affordable rates and desirable dates. For this reason the need to settle on one or more semi-permanent sites has become more urgent. We are hoping Western Oregon University might work for our community as a home. As always, we ask for your feedback.
I am also late to form an organizing committee! If you would like to be involved in planning and organizing Zimfest 2015 in any way or form, please e-mail me: claire-at-zimfest-dot-org.
Best regards,
Claire Jones
Zimfest Coordinator
Minutes from the November 8th meeting of the Zimfest Association board of directors have been posted.
Minutes from the October 12th meeting of the Zimfest Association board of directors have been posted.
