UB Amphitheatre attracts poor crowd turnout
Lekopanye Mooketsi | Friday July 25, 2014 14:20
Artists complained that the event was not well marketed, resulting in the poor crowd turnout.
A local artist, who preferred anonymity, said they use the competitions to promote and market themselves. He said this was also an opportunity to sell their CDs to members of the public who attend the event.
The Principal Programme Officer in the Department of Arts and Culture, Lillian Thanke, said they were not happy with the attendance.
Thanke said that they wanted to gauge the level of attendance if they hosted the festival at a different venue.
She said this is because they want to introduce entrance fees for the competitions next year.
“We want to encourage people that you have to pay to watch talent,” she said. Even though the attendance was poor at the UB Amphitheatre, the Department of Arts and Culture official said they are still going to introduce an entrance fee for next year’s event. They are likely to host the competitions at a similar venue since it is enclosed.
In the past, the finals were hosted at the Tsholofelo Community Park where it was always a full house. The park is more accessible and most revellers from Broadhurst do not have to board public transport to attend the event.
But on Saturday it was mainly the participating artists and the Department of Arts and Culture officials who attended the awards. The absence of members of the public was conspicuous.
Meanwhile, guitarist Kabo Leburu emerged the winner for the best live artist, pocketing P25,000 in the process, while the Francistown-based Ikalanga group, Bana Bana Ba Ntogwa took the second prize. Gantsi group, Bana G-town came in third.
The Boss of Rhumba from Maun scooped the first prize in the best upcoming artist category with Simonsizola from Gaborone becoming second and Dipetsa from Serowe taking the third spot.
In the back track artist category, a Maun group, Velast emerged the champions with Centy Mduduzi from Tsabong getting the second prize, followed by Kale Flow from Francistown.
In the DJs category, DJ Makenno Big Souls from Mochudi was crowned the champion, while the second position went to DJ Tech The Drum from Gaborone. Palapye DJ, Bieps took third position amidst protest from the crowd that he should have taken the first prize instead of DJ Makenno Big Souls.
Though DJ Bieps wowed the crowd with his performance, the judges had disagreed amongst themselves before making an announcement for the DJs category winner.