Multitudes thronged the National Stadium for the last show of the Gaborone International Music and Culture Week (GIMC) on Saturday.
The festival, headlined by South Africa’s renowned DJ Black Coffee, registered the best turn out since inception.
By late evening hundreds had already began to pack the National Stadium and local deejays started to fire-up the place. Performances started with T.H.A.B.O and the Aaah hit-maker Mapetla.
Odirile “Vee” Sento received love from the crowd when he played his old hits. The hits included songs that boosted his music career like Letlhale. The crowd seemed to prefer the old hits to his latest songs. Vee sampled the tittle track from his new album I Do.
At around midnight Black Coffee hit the stage. Black Coffee’s performance was average as compared to the last time he was in Botswana at the St Louis Summer Fest. His latest single, a remake of Alicia Keys’ In Common closed the DJ’s set in style making way for another South African, Donald. Donald performed hit songs, which included In Denial to Over the Moon.
Adding a bit of twist and excitement to the event, the organisers decided to give their fans a chance to shine. Followers were asked to post short videos on the event’s Facebook page, with a short script on why they should be engaged as an MC at the event. Only three ladies made the final cut, out of the hundreds of videos posted, and on Saturday they got to MC for the first time ever.
This according to the man behind the brand, Thapelo “Fish” Pabalinga was their way of nurturing local talent. Even though it was the first time the women hosted an event of that magnitude, they did not do badly.
The week long festivities began with the jazz show headlined by Jonathan Butler at Stanbic Bank Piazza. The following day, the U.S songwriter hosted a free workshop for local artists. Next up was the theatre event followed by poetry.
The GIMC has been tipped to put Gaborone on the international map especially after being listed on the top 10 events to attend in Africa.
