Another six months shopping festival to kickoff at Bole

By Alemayehu Seife Selassie

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – A six-month bazaar and trade fair is going to open in 13 days’ time. The festival that is going to be held in front of the Midroc’s largest Millennium celebration hall construction site will have hundreds of shops, a fashion show, a music and circus show in its six months’ duration. Three partners have teamed up for this project and Michael Ayalew is one of the partners. Talking to SSI this week, this organizer stated that the show is going to be a unique program that will present Ethiopian tradition.

“Different misses would be selected to represent the culture from every region. The Misses would be dancing the traditional dances, wearing the traditional dresses from the region and 30 designers are going to present their traditional works,” Michael said.
The 30 designers are going to take part in the first weeks of the festival and different cultural shows will follow for the coming three months’ time. Different talent shows are also going to be premiered. Different awareness raising programs will take part in the six months program where the fashion show is hoped to take two of the first months.
“There would be an exhibition bazaar that will feature local products such as coffee. The program will create a tremendous marketing opportunity,” Michael added.
The program is going to open on August 23 as well as the other shopping festival that is located behind it.
2,500 square meters of land is going to be used for the shopping festival. 500 square meters is going to be used for parking and every shop will have a tent of 2 square meters .
The organizers have allotted a budget of 300,000-450,000 Birr for the event.
The show that is hoped to take place in less than 15 days time has not even done the gravel leveling. And Michael has this to say about that “we are a bit late and currently we are working to meet the deadline for the opening. The reason for the delay is as a result of the delay in the time we receive the plot of land from the authorities.
The organizer stated that they got a one year permission to use the plot of land but they have only paid six months’ lease of 20,000 per-month which added up to 120,000 Birr. According to Michael the plot of land is going to be given to them for the coming six months as well depending on the way they handle the first six months.

Naturally as a bazaar and trade fair, this program is going to have an entertainment but it will also have an educational program attached with it. We are looking for interested NGOs who are willing to take part in the program to stage their programs in our stage as well.
The show is held at a location where people would pass by for recreational visits and both local and visiting people are expected to attend the event.

August 11, 2007