The Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) this year saw poets invading Street as they once did two years ago. This year running under the theme, "The Engagement Party" saw poets performing at the usual HIVOS poetry cafe run by the HIFA consultant Chirikure Chirikure and also perfoming along international artists in Harare's First Street. The street poetry programme saw poets performing alongside Gospel Power, Zimbabwe College of Music Brass Band and also the Dutch rock and roll band "The Moke". The Moke band is very popular in the Netherlands and is based in Amsterdam.
The band also closed down HIFA with a spectacular act alongside the Zimbabwean songbird Chiwonison Maraire. The poets in First Street perfomed alongside this energetic band without boring the audiences. The poets who thrilled the audience in First Street include Thando Sibanda, Mbizo Chirasha, the duet of Robson Isaac Shoes Lambada and Michael Mabwe, Elizabeth Zaza Muchemwawere, VaSadza and the Malawian based Linda Gabriel.
