Hewu Kids Festival

Hewu, an area made up of a small town known as Whittlesea and 53 villages, struggles with service delivery, lack of facilities and unemployment. Located in a dry Karoo setting, the area hardly has any entertainment facilities for both children and adults. This has made the area less desirable to those who live in it.

To fight this state of depression, I partnered with Phila Park , Msamo Attorneys and SMolFee Technologies to create the first annual Hewu Kids Festival. To start the festival, I had to create the concept document, plan and send these documents to partners and sponsors. I also had to communicate with the police and municipality to assist with water and safety during the event. We also had to use personal funds to add to the toys that Phila Park had, and to print posters and tickets for the event.

We managed to get a sponsorship of R10 000, a R12 000 cake and 50 T shirts from Msamo Attorneys. Local shops such as Eyethu Furnitures and Spar (Whittlesea) chipped in R300 each. All these added in making the event a success.We gave adults free entry and charged each child R50.

The event, which was held on 07 October 2019, attracted 700 children and 200 adults. Vendors also sold their food to the parents and children, keeping the rand circulating in the Hewu area.

Hewu Kids Festival was the first step for me into offline marketing and events promotion. Putting the event together was not only financially draining but also emotionally taxing. However, it was more than exciting and a brand was built in the process.