Electronic festival for independence celebrations
Ulla Setswalo | Friday September 18, 2015 14:56
The first ever electronic festival will be held at the Gaborone Cricket Club on September 30. A trial festival will be beamed in five selected districts as part of a build up to 2016. The selected areas that will be beaming the festival are Maun, Francistown, Tsabong, Gantsi and Serowe. South Africa and other developed countries have already started having electronic music festivals and Botswana will join in the new revolution.
A South African company will also oversee the smooth transmission of the electronic festival so as to help locals with skills transfer. The electronic festival will build talent in all districts and also be an annual event if successful.
This year, festivities will commence on September 27 and continue until September 30 across the country.
Speaking at the media briefing, BOT 50 Coordinator, Charity Kgotlafela said Batswana should be excited about 50 years of independence as there is so much to be celebrated in this milestone.
“As a nation, we need to tell the story of Botswana to nations; its successes and shortcomings. This is why we want to create the hype for Batswana to take part in this journey towards the realization of Vision 2016.” Standard festivities that will cost just under P26 million as opposed to last year, will start on September 27 at Boipuso Hall with an inter-faith service from 8.30am-10.30am. On September 29 there will be the much loved independence eve celebration that will be fun-packed with never-before-seen fireworks like those usually seen in Sydney, Australia.
This will take place at the National Stadium in Gaborone from 5pm-9.30pm but gates will be opened at 3pm. Some of the roads leading to the stadium will be closed. As there will be lot of people next year, BOT 50 wants to see if these road closures will be effective.
On September 30, the main celebrations will be held at the National Stadium from 7am-1.30pm, preceded by a football match between Zebras and the Ethiopian national team. Entrance fee to the game will be P20 Grand Stand and P10 for the rest of the stands.
There will be performances by 15 talented artistes that were selected from the previous President’s Day competitions. Band displays, cultural performances, BDF retreat and other exciting acts will be part of the programme. Unfortunately events such as last year’s fashion show, legends and film shows to mention a few will not be done this year. One of the fascinating features of the independence celebrations is the roving torch that will be launched on the September 30 and will continue to traverse the country for 365 days.
Kgotlafela also revealed that the BOT 50 logo would be launched soon. BOT 50 is also looking for all Batswana who were born in 1966 on Independence Day to come forward and partake in the celebrations.