Photos:Curious Holiday Makers Flock Azulato Children’s Festival

The Azulato Children’s Festival that takes children into a whole new world of artistic and scientific experiences seems to have sealed its place on the children’s holiday calendar.

Happening for the second edition, the festival attracted thousands of excited children and their parents on 28t​ h​ April 2019.

The Goethe-Zentrum Kampala Director Barbara Sommer had high expectations for the festival and says that the organizing team was indeed expecting a day full of creativity, fun and excitement.

The annual festival that had its first edition in 2018 is an initiative by the Goethe Zentrum Kampala, Uganda German Cultural Society, whose goal is to give children innovative new ways to learn and develop skills at a young age.

Families flocked the 7 Trees Gardens in Kololo for the free event and children had the opportunity to take part in hands-on arts and Science activities, interactive workshops and live performances by various Ugandan organizations and schools.

Most workshops and activities from last year like crazy science experiments with the Mad Scientist, beat boxing, pottery, drum circles, recycling, storytelling, free face painting and board games were on the program, alongside new activities like Capoeira, a form of martial arts and crotchet making.

The festival’s vision of promoting active learning and inspiring children to discover new interests and talents were fully achieved as the children distinctively enjoyed visiting different workshop stations to try out various arts and science activities.

Schools like Kiwatule Primary School, Blessed Toddlers Nursery and Primary School, Baraka Performers, Rays of Hope among others gave powerful stage performances through traditional and creative dances and singing.

This year’s festival was even more inclusive with initiatives like Save Street Children Uganda, a home for former Street children and Home of Joy Centre for Children with Disabilities proudly presented powerful performances on the main stage and later joined in on the fun workshops and activities.

Gyagenda Isa of Faamclub, an organization that conducted workshops at the festival engaging children in creative recycling fashion shows says, “Our education system focuses majorly on cramming what is in the books, teachers undermine the slow learners hence killing their self Esteem. It would be very important to discover the child’s strength or interests and then purely help to develop that whether in Science, sports, Art, speech and social interaction. The child will freely discover and express him/herself better. With this generation, self-expression and creativity matters so much for the growth of our young people”

With our workshop, children have been able to create artsy works out of the thrown away materials which are most dangerous to our environment especially plastics. They later enjoyed modelling with their Recycled fashion work, this helps them learn to save our environment and also encourages Self-expression and creative because they do the work themselves.”

Ngoma Jam Session’s Liz Kamugisha points out the fact that children are under a lot of pressure to perform well in exams, which can create a lot of stress and anxiety for them yet what is learnt is very theoretical and difficult to apply in real life and that is why initiatives like Ngoma Jam Session conducted drum circles and drum workshops for children at Azulato Festival.

She says that by showing children how one can learn through play, and how approaching learning with a sense of curiosity and experimentation, they can improve problem-solving skills & creative thinking, which are practical skills one can apply to life beyond school.

Furthermore, group drumming provides a method of release, for those still carrying the stress and anxiety of exams. It is also a confidence-building exercise that is bound to put a smile on even the shyest child.

This edition of the Azulato Children’s Festival attracted an enthusiastic crowd of all ages and was made possible through collaboration between very many Ugandan organizations in partnership with the organizers Goethe-Zentrum Kampala, the Uganda German Cultural Society.

The festival will come back bigger next year with more activities that inspire curiosity, creativity and scrutiny among Uganda’s children.

Follow the Azulato Facebook page for updates
at www.facebook.com/AzulatoChildrensFestival or visit the website at ​www.azulato.org​ so​ as not to miss the next festival.