Under the Same Sun: How Europe Month Closed With Music, Culture and a Full House in Harare
The EU Delegation to Zimbabwe brought Europe Month 2026 to a close with a concert that was equal parts celebration, cultural exchange and proof that music truly knows no borders.
On a warm Saturday afternoon in Harare, the grounds of the EU Residence came alive.
Blankets spread across the lawn. The hum of conversation filled the air. And then — the music began.
The EU Delegation to Zimbabwe, in partnership with Sofar Harare, closed out Europe Month 2026 with Under the Same Sun: Where Groove Meets Guitar — a free outdoor concert that brought together European and Zimbabwean musical traditions on one stage, in front of an audience that turned out in full force to be part of something genuinely special.
European Union/Gamu360/simplycrafte/2026
A Concert Rooted in Partnership
Europe Month — celebrated each May across the European Union, anchored by Europe Day on 9 May — is a time for EU Delegations around the world to celebrate their partnerships, values and connections with host countries. In Zimbabwe, where May is also Culture Month, this year’s celebrations carried particular resonance. Rather than close the month with a formal event, the EU Delegation chose to mark it with something more immediate and more human: live music, shared openly, with the people of Harare.
The result was an afternoon that few who were there will forget.
The Music
The concert featured a lineup that was as carefully considered as it was genuinely exciting. Alexio Kawara, one of Zimbabwe’s most beloved Afro-fusion artists, opened the afternoon with the warmth and nostalgic energy that has made him a household name since the turn of the millennium. The Jukebox Band brought their signature versatility and electrifying stage presence — lighting up the crowd with every set.
But a unique collaboration also happened that afternoon, one that visitors will not forget too soon.
European Union/Gamu360/simplycrafte/2026
Juan Cruz Palacios, a talented Flamenco guitarist from Madrid — trained under the legendary master Alejandro Manzano — took the stage alongside Trust Samende, one of Zimbabwe’s most accomplished guitarists and a performer of genuine international standing, and Jacob Mafuleni, a master mbira player and custodian of one of Zimbabwe’s most ancient and sacred musical traditions.
Guitar to guitar. Traditional instrument to traditional instrument. What unfolded was a live collaboration that was, in the truest sense, the EU’s founding motto — United in Diversity — performed out loud.
A Week in the Making
The collaboration did not happen by accident. In the days leading up to the concert, Juan Cruz Palacios spent time immersing himself in Zimbabwe’s musical landscape. He visited Jacob Mafuleni at his workshop in Tynwald, where the two musicians sat together, played together and discovered — as musicians always do — that the distance between a Flamenco guitar and a mbira is far smaller than it looks on a map. He then spent time with Trust Samende, whose own extraordinary career has taken him from Harare to Glastonbury and back. By the time Saturday arrived, what took the stage was not a group of strangers performing alongside one another — it was a genuine musical conversation, a few days in the making.
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European Union/Gamu360/simplycrafte/2026
The Ambassador’s Welcome
Opening the afternoon, the EU Ambassador to Zimbabwe H.E. Katrin Hagemann, welcomed the audience to the EU Residence and reflected on the significance of the occasion — the close of Europe Month, the coincidence of Zimbabwe’s own Culture Month, and the meaning of gathering together under the same sky to share music across cultures and continents.
“Music is humanity’s most honest common language,” she reminded the audience. “It requires no translation. It crosses borders without a passport. Whatever our differences in language, tradition or geography — we share this planet, and this afternoon, we share the same music.”
Art, Culture and Partnership on Display
The afternoon was also an opportunity to celebrate another dimension of the EU’s cultural engagement with Zimbabwe. On display were the works of talented Zimbabwean visual artists, invited to interpret the EU-Zimbabwe partnership through their own creative lens. Their extraordinary contributions now form a beautiful calendar that the EU Delegation will carry forward as a lasting symbol of this partnership — a reminder that the EU’s commitment to Zimbabwe’s cultural and creative sector extends far beyond a single afternoon.
A Thank You
None of this would have been possible without the vision and energy of Khumbulani Muleya and the Sofar Harare team, whose commitment to creating intimate, meaningful live music experiences made this afternoon everything it was. To the musicians who gave their time, their talent and their craft — and to the audience who showed up, spread their blankets and simply listened — thank you.
Europe Month 2026 is closed. And it went out, as it should have, in music.
European Union/Gamu360/simplycrafte/2026
Under the Same Sun was presented by the EU Delegation to Zimbabwe in partnership with Sofar Harare, as part of the EU Delegation’s Europe Month 2026 public diplomacy programme.
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