Inside the Old Trade Fair Site: A Walk Through Bulawayo’s 1960s Glory

Walk the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair grounds today and you can still feel the ambition of the 1960s. The pavilions, mostly built between 1960 and 1972, were once filled every April with exhibitors from Europe, Asia and the Americas — making this corner of Bulawayo the busiest week of business in the region.

British Leyland brought new car models. Italian textile firms set up demonstrations. Bulawayo’s own factories displayed everything from Heinz baked beans (then made locally) to bicycles, leather shoes and railway parts.

The fair has lost much of its former scale, but the grounds remain — a strange archaeological park of mid-century industrial optimism. Some pavilions are now empty. Others have been creatively re-used by event companies and trade associations.

There is talk, recurring every few years, of a major revival. So far, mostly talk. But the bones, as ever in this city, are still good.