7 Best Tourism Festivals In Tanzania : Despite it being termed the best African safari destination, Tanzania is also a pro in a variety of tourism and nature related aspects. National parks, Game reserves, preserved areas, snake parks, and outstanding mountains like Mount Kilimanjaro, Meru and Oldonyo Lengai, Tanzania has beautiful, charming, loving and friendly people in all areas where its people are establishers of different activities and festivals that bring unity, love, and for once people get together to honor their deep history and background.
Tanzania is an East African country with a total area of 945,087 square Kilometers (which is equivalent to 364,900 square miles) also covering Pemba, Unguja and Mafia Islands from Zanzibar portion. It has a total number of 31 administrative regions, where by each region has its own background, culture, traditions, norms and their general way of life. Again, each region too has its own distinctive nature, wonder and touristic attraction and 126 spoken languages all across the nation.
Tanzania Tourism Festivals are prepared in different regions respectively in order to honor all touristic activities and attractions done in the nation; this also brings a chance to give awareness to the world on what is happening in Tanzania regarding its tourism sector. The following are the touristic Festivals for holiday makers to take part into.
KILI FAIR FESTIVALS:
Also known as the Karibu Travel and Tourism Fair. This is the largest travel and tourism festival held in Tanzania, taking place in Arusha region the capital region of all Tanzania safari destinations. This fair involves over 200 hundred craftsmen and cultural women, and national park workers who bring in their crafts and products for exhibition. Travellers, visitors and other holiday makers get a chance to tour around and get all the information, history and background on these products and packages. People also get a chance to move around and shop all their requirements just from tents in the park.
MAASAI FESTIVAL:
Maasai Festival Season is a fair held in Tanzania for a whole month filled with exclusive celebrations and amazing activities. It is usually selected in a month during which the tourism season is high so as to promote international and domestic tourism while creating room for vacationers to participate in this festival. Activities undertaken in the Maasai Festival include showing off Maasai cultural norms and values, displaying Maasai dressing, cultural cooking, cultural dances and other related activities that prevail in Tanzania. The Maasai tribe is the one selected because it is unique and portrays the origin and indigenous people of Tanzania.
SERENGETI CULTURAL FESTIVAL:
The third week of July every year in Mara region the western part of Tanzania celebrates the annual Serengeti Cultural Festival. This extravagant event unifies and gathers people from different tribes that originate and live between the lake zone and the Serengeti National Park. This festival was established to bring tourists and people together in the Mugumu town, the main purpose is to give tourists a chance to explore, navigate and experience the true African culture. This festival brings lots of fun, food to offer, massive sales of local crafts and paintings.
SAUTI ZA BUSARA FESTIVAL:
This festival is referred to as “Sounds of Wisdom”. It is an African music fair established to honor African traditions and music. It is held every year in February, it takes place in Old Fort “Ngome Kongwe” Zanzibar. While the artistic activities keep on taking place the Old Stone Town is busy with fringe activities too. Sauti za Basara brings in artists from different places who participate by showcasing a diverse and dynamic program of beautiful African music. This festival gives chance to travelers and vacationers to see and experience Tanzania’s cultural music like Taarab and pop.
KILI TRAILS FESTIVAL:
This is a celebration done on the lower slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. This festival is done on weekends where a number of events are practiced including camping, food vendors and live music. It gives tourists a chance to participate and feel at home after a long Mount Kilimanjaro Hike or give other travelers chances to engage by having fun with indigenous Tanzania people.
INTERNATIONAL BAGAMOYO ARTS FESTIVAL:
This is the largest and most important touristic cultural festival in the Tanzania mainland, it usually takes place in October through November every year to honor Tanzania culture. A mixture of music, dances, acrobatics, theatre, exhibitions and discussions takes place in this festival. Cultural groups from all over the country participate and other interested teams from African countries and Europe too. It is a 7 days festival that gives tourists and travellers equal chances to learn and explore different cultures and traditions of different tribes from different regions in Africa. It promotes tourism, encourages mutual cultural changes, raising awareness on topics that bring unity and solidarity in our societies.
ZANZIBAR INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL:
It is also known as the Festival of dhow countries. It is done annually in Zanzibar, Tanzania and it is named to be one of the biggest art and cultural events in East Africa. It was established to promote and help film and cultural industries develop and increase Tanzania’s economy. This festival allows tourists to participate in seeing what it generally looks like. It is a wonderful touristic experience indeed.
Apart from the listed above tourism festivals others include, the Unification day where Tanzanians celebrate their independence in a cultural way, the Swahili fashion week where Tanzanians under different designers tend to showcase the cultural designs, Kilimanjaro marathon, Kiliman adventure challenge and the Mwaka Kongwe festival.
