F/town jazz fest organisers rope in Selota
Koketso Kgoboge | Tuesday May 23, 2017 17:03
Selota will now headline the festival alongside his compatriot, Ringo Mandlingozi. In a bid to add spice to the event organisers announced that the festival will also feature respected Setswana poet, Moroka Moreri. The festival director, Soares Katumbela of Streethorn Music Promotions said the change was forced by the current state of health of the legendary, Gwangwa.
“This change was inevitable, Jonas Gwangwa’s management team informed us that he is not well hence we decided to replace him in time to avoid future inconveniences”. “Selota is also a huge jazz maestro who has many belts under him, but we should be apologetic for the inconvenience caused to those who bought tickets particularly to watch Gwangwa,” Katumbela said. The festival was previously postponed because the organisers failed to secure sufficient sponsorship.
He explained that they have managed to secure two more sponsorships on top of the sponsors they initially secured. The two recent sponsors that have come on board are Matshetsa Holdings; the company that owns Francistown Guest House, Masunga Lodge and Ghetto Toilet Paper, and Guilt Security. “We are still negotiating with other companies for sponsorship and we hope the negotiations will bear fruit.”
He said that sales of ticket also resumed on Monday. Katumbela noted that those who had previously purchased the festival tickets dated April 8 are advised to replace them with the new ones. The festival line up features respected jazz musicians such as Sereetsi and the Natives, Lister Boleseng, Shanti-Lo, Amantle Brown, and Bana Bana Ba Ntogwa. The festival, which coincides with Francistown’s 120 years will be held at the second city’s stadium.