Lombard To Deliver Lagos Jazz Festival Lecture 2015

Founder of award-winning Cape Town International Jazz Festival, South Africa, Mr. Rashid Lombard will be guest speaker at this year’s International Jazz Day lecture in Lagos. He is also special guest of honor at Lagos International Jazz Festival 2015. Lombard will speak on ‘International Jazz Festivals: A Driver For Tourism And Economic Growth – the South African Perspective’.

Lombard has garnered accolades over the past 40 years for his labour and commitment to the arts. He was awarded the South African National Order of Ikhamanga. This year’s International Jazz Day on April 30 in Lagos is both the culmination of the Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM) and the start of the three-day Lagos International Jazz Festival 2015 organized by Inspiro productions. 

Born in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa, on April 10, 1951, Lombard trained as an architectural draughtsman and then worked as an industrial photographer before becoming a photojournalist, where he focused on photographing the rise of South African democratic movement. Widely travelled, he has worked for the BBC, NBC, AFP and a number of progressive publications such as Grassroots and South and his works have been part of exhibitions all over the world. He was a member of the Vukalisa artists’ collective, which promoted community-based cultural activities in Southern Africa. His book of Jazz photographs, Jazz Rocks, was published in 2010.  
 
A passionate lover of music and Jazz in particular he managed several radio stations before starting the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, now in its 16th year. The Mandela Bay Music Festival was also launched in Port Elizabeth, his home town, in 2011 and similar jazz festivals under his leadership have been held in Mozambique and Angola with plans to expand into the rest of Africa including Namibia, Tanzania and Botswana with all having a strong tourism component to them.

The International Jazz Day Lecture and Lagos International Jazz Festival 2015 will be held at cultural hotspot Freedom Park in Lagos.