African Roots Flava poised for Maun
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Friday February 14, 2020 15:01
The aim is to celebrate African culture through music, cuisines, arts and crafts.
In an interview with the event’s marketing manager at Soul Jam Enterprises, Mopati Keboge told Arts and Culture that the tour event’s first edition would be in Maun. He said the event would be held two to three times a year at different places across Botswana. For instance, it be would be held in Gaborone, Serowe, Francistown and Maun to mention a few.
“The aim is to connect and create a platform for designers and stakeholders to come and showcase their products, to bring flashbacks of culture, traditional practices including poetry.
Our event’s full day slot is to entertain all attendants with different African different cultural practices and music. We will showcase different cultures through drama, poetry, traditional games etc,” he said.
The occasion will be graced by both local and international artists who are expected to keep the revellers on their toes with sweet melodies. International acts includes DJ Zinhle (SA), Qwabe Twins (SA) and One Blood (Namibia) while local artists includes the likes of Stika Sola, Ndingo Jowa, Dr Vom, African Yard, DJ Latimmy to mention a few.
Furthermore, he explained that as event coordinators they are faced with challenges. He said he said venues that they want to host their events at were expensive. He added that the industry has its own people who were there to stay and don’t give new comers a chance to succeed as they sabotage them. “We hardly support each other as local organisers. In our country, private companies which sponsor events are limited and their budget is always not enough to cover all events per year unlike in South Africa where music festivals are seen as an opportunity for both parties,” he said.
Additionally, Keboge explained that local entertainment support hinge was way loose. He said some Batswana artists do not do enough to promote their work therefore making it hard to gain recognition from local music promoters.
He added that some local artistes fail to give promoters and event coordinators their profiles as per requirement.
“African Roots Flava Tour is coming to your town, village and country not just as an event, we are to release our calendared schedule soon and we invite individuals, associations, companies and government sectors to partake in our events,” he said. Tickets are sold at P350 VIP, P200 for adult double ticket, P150 adult single ticket, P100 for children double ticket and P75 for children’s single ticket. Children aging six years and under are allowed free entry.