allAfrica.com: Kenya: Country's Search for Reputable World Festival Bears Fruit (Page 1 of 1)

The search for an annual music occasion to rival the likes of the Cape Town International Jazz Festival or even the Sauti ya Busara Festival of Zanzibar has over the year's been fruitless in Kenya.

From the mid to late 1990s, Kenya boasted of big concerts such as The Beats of the Season, Vunja Mifupa and The Smirnoff Experience, but none could be sustained, and most collapsed due to poor management and the sponsors subsequently pulled out.

Even those that lasted more than three years could not be classed as international concerts since they did not attract any musicians of international repute.

"All the artistes were Kenyans with maybe one or two from neighbouring Tanzania or Uganda," says promoter Lakey Odera of Pambazuka Entertainment.

While the sponsors pointed accusing fingers at promoters for not coming up with long-term strategies, the promoters themselves said sponsors pulled out as soon as they realised their marketing targets.

But producer Tabu Osusa saw it differently. "Such festivals require the input of the Government, but I'm sorry to say that the Government, through the ministry of Culture does very little to promote such initiatives," he says.

More recently, however, there was hope that the Summer Reggae Festival could succeed where others had failed, but this idea too collapsed in the face of one controversy after another.

However, the Celtel Sawa Sawa Festival seems to be offering new hope for a recognised and sustainable international music festival.

Inaugurated last year, Sawa Sawa was the biggest musical gathering in the country in recent times.

The organisers, Saarakasi Trust, estimate that close to 50,000 people attended the two-day event at the Nairobi Arboretum and Moi International Sports Centre Kasarani to coincide with last year's Madaraka Day celebrations.

Where Sawa Sawa Festival beats previous attempts is its ability to attract big names in the international music circle. African jazz maestro Hugh Masekela of South Africa crowned a great line-up of local artistes in a memorable performance at the scenic Arboretum.

The following day, the sports centre was a full house as more than 30,000 reggae fans turned up to watch one of the genre's biggest names in Burning Spear.

"This year, we can reveal that we have an even bigger concert and Kenyans should look forward to a festival of international standards," says Marion van Dijck, a drector of Sarakasi Trust.

She reveals that Sawa Sawa will this year be a three-day event - from May 30 to June 1, or Madaraka Day.

Friday (30th May) will be a sponsor's cocktail but the following day, Arboretum will host what the organisers expect to be the biggest musical extravaganza ever held at the park.

Mahotella Queens of South Africa and Percus Normader - a trio of percussionists from Benin will join the local bands in entertaining patrons in rotation on the three different stages. One of the stages will target younger patrons and will be run by Ghetto Radio FM.

Crowning the Arboretum performance will be singer and percussionist Youssoun N'Dour, the Senegalese musician who founded the now popular Mbalax rhythm and dance style. He is also one of the best artistes in Africa and one of the most recognised African musicians outside the continent.

"There are few musicians who can match Youssoun N'Dour, so we are confident that the festival is bringing in the very best to Kenyans," says Marion, the brains behind the hugely successful Sarakasi dancers group.

The Sunday should see a pilgrimage to Kasarani where local reggae groups The Warriors, General Onyx and Heart & Soul will entertain revellers. Beef Band of Holland will be making their debut performance in Kenya, although perhaps what will no doubt make the festival a must-attend occasions is the presence of Black Uhuru - one of the most popular reggae bands in the world for decades now.

Black Uhuru is probably in the same league as fellow Jamaican groups such as The Wailing Souls and Bob Marley & The Wailers. The original Black Uhuru line-up was made up of Don Carlos, Derrick Simpson and Garth Dennis. However, the group underwent a lot of changes.

Don Carlos left for a solo career and was replaced by Michael Ross and so did Garth Dennis who left to join The Wailing Souls and was replaced by Errol Nelson.

They are the first reggae group to win a Grammy Award when the reggae category was introduced to the world's most prestigious music awards in 1985.

That was for the song, What is love? Fans of the genre of music will also remember them for timeless tunes such as Sine Eye Girl and Guess Who is Coming for Dinner'.

What should make the Celtel Sawa Sawa Festival even more appealing is the fact that all the concerts are free, thanks to the sponsorship Sarakasi Trust has received from mobile telephone service provider Celtel and the Dutch embassy.

Dutch airline KLM and Fairview Hotels have also chipped in to make the event a memorable one.

Marion expects a large number of fans from other parts of East Africa. "Last year, there were hundreds of fans from Tanzania and Uganda. With the line-up we have this year, the number should be bigger," she predicts.

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