Kwambala festival enhanced

Chakalisa Dube | Friday April 27, 2018 13:22

This year’s show takes place on Saturday at the Francistown Stadium starting just after lunch until 6am on Sunday. The festival was launched last year amid much fanfare, but the maiden event was relatively average.

It was mostly marred by poor sound and lack of security. The spectators also did not come in large numbers as had been anticipated.

“We have beefed up the security for the event.

We have hired three security companies for the festival. I bet that this time around the show will be more enhanced,” the main organiser and the brains behind the show, Lesego Kwambala said.

Kwambala said that they are targeting 2,000 spectators for tomorrow’s show.  “From our stall in Francistown we have sold over 200 tickets. Artists have also been mandated to sell tickets.

They have also been aggressively marketing the show in various platforms as well.  For this reason I am confident that we will reach the 2,000 target,” Kwambala, who is also a councillor in Francistown, said.

He added: “We have held activations for the show in most key parts of the city and its environs and I assume that through them some people will be attracted to attend the show. The merchandise for the event is also doing well in terms of sales.”

The line up for the show will be headlined by one of the country’s most celebrated Rhumba artists Alfredo Mosimanegape, Franco, Jeff Matheatau, Tumza and Oscar Chakabuya.

Legendary traditional soul artist Johny Mokhali who has turned Botswana into his second home was the main act at last year’s festival.

“We have reduced the line-up to a reasonable number. Last year we realised that artists could not give their best because of limited time as a result of the long line up.

The headlining artists will be allocated not less than one hour for their performance,” he highlighted.

Mc Maswe, Beauty Queens, Madala vs Kelly Gess and Ras-T are some of the artists who will perform at the festival.

DJ Colastraw is also expected to feature at the event as well as other Francistown DJs. Maswe, Madala and Chakabuya featured at last year’s event.  “One the country’s promising Rhumba artists named Shikito who is aged only 11 years old will launch an album during the festival,” Kwambala noted.

According to him, the festival will also serve as a release party for Alfredo Mosimanegape’s new album.

Furthermore, it will be used to pre-launch Franco and Jeff Matheatau’s albums respectively.