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Botswana: Top Stars Festival Comes to Gabs
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Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
10 April 2008
Posted to the web 11 April 2008
Lekopanye Mooketsi
Gaborone
A big festival featuring top local and international stars is billed for April 26 at Gaborone's Fairgrounds.
The festival is being organised by JJ Promotions, which is owned by ace guitarist John Selolwane. Some of the big names expected to feature at the festival include South Africa's Tshepo Tshola and Zimbabwe's ever green Afro pop artiste Oliver Mutukudzi. Tshola, a former member of Afro jazz group, Sankomota, has since embarked on a successful solo career.
Both Tshola and Mutukudzi need little or no introductions in this country. The Lesotho-born Tshola once played for some of the old defunct bands in Botswana. Mutukudzi's songs are popular in the country. But he only staged a show here about four years ago. During his last visit, he was supposed to stage a show at the Botswana Television (Btv) Amphitheatre but the event was cancelled because the promoter could not secure the sound equipment. As a last resort to recoup costs, Mutukudzi was forced to stage an impromptu show at the Gaborone Sun.
Other artistes lined up for the festival include Selolwane himself, Punah Gabasiane, Maxy, Matsieng Shanti-Lo, Ndingo Johwa and Lucas Senyatso, who is also from South Africa. Gabasinae confirmed that she has signed a contract with the organisers of the festival. Advance tickets will cost P135 while at the entrance one would have to fork out P150. According to the organisers, the advance tickets would be available at Spar shops. Selolwane said revellers would be allowed to bring their own cooler boxes and braii packs. Promotional t-shirts and caps would also be available at the festival. Musicians who are participating in the festival would also be allowed to sell their products. Selolwane said they are currently working on the logistics for the festival. But he warned that security is going to be tight. He said they have engaged a security company and have also appealed to the police to assist them. He added that they are going to ensure that everyone would be safe.
Selolwane said they decided to come up with something solid because they felt there have not been so many festivals taking place in Botswana. He said in fact Batswana have been forced to travel long distances to attend festivals like the recent Cape Town jazz festival. Selolwane said they felt they should organise a festival that could also attract music lovers from South Africa. He believes the festival will also be a good way of promoting local artistes because most of them are not so well known outside the country. He revealed that they have also invited promoters from South Africa to the festival.
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Selolwane is confident the festival will be a great success. "We are appealing to Batswana to support the initiative because we are doing it for them." Selolwane said they plan to organise another festival in August or September.
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| Copyright © 2008 Mmegi/The Reporter. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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