Franco’s Soul Fill Up set for April
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Sunday January 16, 2022 06:00
However, it was postponed following the outbreak of COVID-19 and government restrictions on the hosting of music festivals which lasted over 18 months much to the disappointment of Franco's fans. While there were concerns that Franco had abandoned his initial idea, the Soul Fill Up with Franco team announced Wednesday that preparations are back on track to hold the festival.
Project Manager, Phempheretlhe Bafana Pheto also announced that that the event will now be hosted annually as a celebration of Franco’s music journey. “The event will be hosted on April 2, this year. Soul Fill Up with Franco will now be an annual project as part of Franco’s music journey.
It is done to share his music journey with Batswana,” he said. Pheto also said although they suffered massive loses due the event's postponement; they did not abandon the charity aspect part of it as two people have already benefited from the project. At the time when the festival was postponed, the organisers had revealed that over 50% of the targeted 15,000 ticket had been sold.
The organisers had encouraged those who had already bought tickets to secure them for future use once the show returns. But Pheto said those who have lost, soiled or misplaced the tickets will have to buy again as they will not be assisted.
The project’s marketing and public relations officer, Godwin ‘Exoxo’ Sebina said the event will showcase Botswana’s talent to the rest of the world and their capacity to hold big events without international artists. He stated that Franco has resiliently shown over the years, that he can do it, while maintaining a sizeable fan-base across the spectrum.
He also encouraged fans to buy tickets on time to avoid stampede at the gate. He said activations for the festival will commence this Friday. For his part, Franco said they invite Batswana to buy tickets in large numbers to fill up the National Stadium. “I promise you that I will deliver my best performance. As my colleague was saying, this event is meant to celebrate my music journey from 2001.
The event is meant to showcase Botswana’s ability to host a festival with an all-local line-up. This is what I want for this show. I also want to empower Batswana through this festival. I believe we will have a capacity crowd, if not, then I will not do it again,” said Franco. Franco has a solo music career spanning 20 years, with 17 career albums under his belt since releasing his famous Ke lela le lona album back in 2001. While the popularity of the Kwasa Kwasa genre has waned down over the years due to emerging trending genres, Franco has remained resolute and continued to keep a sizeable number of his fans. Franco remains one of the biggest crowd pullers locally.
Standard tickets for the Soul Fill Up With Franco sell at P150 while VIP tickets cost P1500.