Botswana musical culture to be showcased to 1000 Desert Race

MONKAGEDI GAOTLHOBOGWE
Staff Writer | Wednesday September 22, 2010 00:00

Events and marketing company Footprints, owned by Losika Seboni, is hosting the music show on Friday at the Botswanacraft where racers, foreign fans, and locals are expected to interact after the race prologue. 

The show is dubbed the 'Kgalagadi 1000 Culture Festival'.  Seboni says the show, to cost P100, will start at 6pm, adding that the target audience will be mainly the 2,000 racers, as well as the fans of the popular event, which annually attracts about 500, 000 spectators.

Seboni says local super group Culture Spears will be among the performers on the evening that also will have cultural music giants, Shumba Ratshega, and Gongmaster, while dance star, Vee wa Mampela will also present a live performance.  DJs Easy B, DJ Sly, and Loose-boy, will also present their sets on the night.

Seboni says his company with the support of the Department of Arts and Culture regard the 1000 Desert race as an opportunity to showcase Botswana's music and food culture to the visitors, adding that Footprints has been staging similar shows for the last three years now.

He says with most of the fans coming from the southern African region, his company has always felt that it presents the right opportunity to sell 'our music brand as well as market our culture' to the entire region.

'The truth is, it is the only sport and fun event of its magnitude and if we do not showcase our music, our food, our pride, we will never have anything bigger than this stage to shine,' argues Seboni, who is also a radio personality with Yarona fm.

The concept of staging cultural music alongside the 1000 Desert race started at Hatsalatadi three years ago when the organisers hosted a show there featuring the best of Botswana's cultural music along with local Hatsalatadi cultural music.

Seboni says during the inaugural event they also worked with the local Village Development Committee (VDC) to set up camping sites where the locals served traditional cuisines.

This year they are working with the local VDC at Kumakwane to set up camping sites and prepare local cuisines to sell to the Desert Race crowd.

Kumakwane will this year be both the starting and finishing point for the race, which has over the years been starting and finishing at Gaborone's Game City.