69 participating musicians in 2 bands from each of the MC countries Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe came together in TaSUBa, Bagamoyo and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, from 14 to 19 July

 to compete for a European tour 2011, participation to the JMI Ethno Music Camps and instrumental prizes. This, the 12th edition of the InterRegional Festival (IRF) was by far the best ever in terms of quality of the bands, which made the work of the 9 piece international jury more difficult than ever! When the smoke settled on Saturday night, Club Shanga from Zimbabwe came out as the overall IRF-10 winner, and the band will be further trained and groomed before they start their European tour in May 2011. Ethno participation (July 2011) was offered to two individual musicians coming from Tanzania (Lumumba Theatre Group) and Mozambique (Tudulos) with instrument prizes spread among other outstanding musicians of the 10 competing bands.

The IRF-10 also encompassed 5 international guest bands from Ghana, South Africa, Belgium and Sweden as well as 4 local acts, and the IRF-07 winning band 'Body, Mind & Soul' from Malawi. The TaSUBa venue FRI-SAT in Bagamoyo and Makumbusho Cultural Center SUN in Dar were packed for all three concerts, in total some 8.000 in the audience. Besides concerts, all participants took part in the opening jam, session and the high leveled workshops on topics such as 'Improvisation' with Will Ramsay, 'Song Writing' with Graham Weir, 'Develop Your Voice' with Carola Kinasha, 'Band management and Career Development' with experienced industry experts Poney Gross, Rufus Maculuve, Tommi Rasmussen and Kaz Kasozi - as well as the MC 'Relationship workshop' dealing with life skills training related to HIV/AIDS prevention, gender equality and healthy lifestyles.

The IRF is first and foremost musical meetings across borders with the aim of forging friendships and furthering international understandings - and the IRF-10 offered numerous opportunities to do so! As from Monday morning, buses with tired but satisfied band participants started to return home to respective country - while bands from far away boarded airplanes to get back home.

We are already looking forward to the next (13th) InterRegional Festival in Maputo, Mozambique, September 2011!!