The Sunday Mail
Andrew Moyo and Prince Mushawevato
TOP South African rapper AKA and Zimbabwe’s finest dancehall singer Winky D, will this Friday September 23, set the ball rolling at the sixth edition of Shoko Festival.The fiesta is now one of, if not, the biggest event to look forward to in the country as other popular festivals have either collapsed or scaled down operations. Gone are the days when festivals, especially around this time of the year, used to give the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe headaches as they tried to create a balance.
There used to be a number of festivals (both big and small) jostling for prime slots throughout the year but that is now a thing of the past. Even Hifa (Harare International Festival of the Arts) failed to take place this year.
Chimanimani Arts Festival comes and goes — in fact — the once sparkling event is no longer worth talking about as it started fading several years back. Not only does the festival’s publicity team appear to have lost steam but also the quality of artistes gracing the event has seriously dropped and so has the depth of the programme.
The same can also be said about Intwasa Arts festival in Bulawayo, the Harare/Winter Jazz Festivals, Hurungwe Arts Festival, Delta Beer Festival(s), Yocaf, Zimbabwe International Film Festival among others.
These developments have now led many to start searching for a new giant on the festival front. And organisers of the annual Shoko Festival are raising their heads high.
Some of the artistes who have graced their stage in previous editions include Tony Rebel, Casper Nyovest, Tol A$$ Mol, Bucie, Tumi & The Volume, Khuli Chana and HHP.
Miombo Magic held in May was a huge success but still lacks the hype that comes with Shoko, and the fact that the latter offers a variety of arts genres including poetry, comedy, dance and music gives it an edge. Shoko Festival Coordinator Natalie Kombe, believes the festival has grown over the years. She also highlighted she was aware of the fact that many festival lovers were looking up to them to fill up the void left by Hifa hence they have relevant programmes that cater for the needs of different audiences.
The programming is extensive, with a little bit of everything for everyone from comedy shows to the spoken word, dance, the schools programme, the new media workshops and music.
“We have done our best to have a jam packed programme with different artistes and we have come up with new improvements in certain areas, which will be seen at the festival. People should come prepared to ‘Come Alive’ and be thoroughly entertained on all days of the festival,” said Kombe.
“. . .the event is special because we are hosting it in a tough economic operating environment so to be able pull together such a mammoth undertaking feels like a real victory to the team.”
Lack of funding and creativity are some of the major reasons why other festivals have folded but Shoko still holds on.
“We have the support of the Embassy of Sweden, the Norwegian People’s Aid and Zambezi Magic to name a few and we also have several sponsors who have come on board in many different ways and we are very appreciative of all their efforts and support,” revealed Kombe.
The three-day festival running under the theme “Come Alive” will fold on Sunday with the Peace in The Hood Concert being held in Chitungwiza. But before the curtain comes down on the event, revellers will get first grade entertainment from this year’s headline act AKA.
Mzansi’s top act is generally regarded by many as the African “Kanye West” because of his rapping prowess and a conscious fashion sense, which has placed him among the top trendsetters on the continent. To his credit, AKA is among the few African rappers to have been featured on the popular American radio show “Sway in the Morning”.
His counterpart K.O recently gave a good account of himself during the Mafikizolo gig that was held at Belgravia Sports Club in the capital recently.
Thus nothing short of fireworks is expected from the South African artiste when he visits these shores considering he (AKA) has more known hits than K.O Some of the rapper’s popular songs include “Victory Lap”, “Jealousy”, “Run Jozi”, “Congratulate”, “Baddest”, “Sim Dope”, “All Eyes on Me” and “Composure”.
Also AKA has been nominated more than 25 times for many international awards, collecting around 13 accolades including a 2012 SAMA for Best Male Artiste, an MTV Africa Music Award for Best Collaboration, six awards at the 2015 South African Hip-Hop Awards and two awards at this year’s Metro FM Music Awards just to mention a few.
The rapper is a performer of repute and has shared the stage with the likes of Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, Rick Ross, 2 Chainz, Big Sean and Kendrick Lamar.
But local acts like Winky D, Jah Prayzah, Ammara Brown, Judgement Yard, Gemma Griffiths, Dobba Don, Vee Mukarati, Doc Vikela, Q and Bryan K who are part of the festival are no pushovers.
They can easily cause an upset on any day.
Kombe was confident the artistes selected after wider consultations with the public would deliver, considering they are all not new to performing on the big stage.
“We did audience polls, looked out for who was making strides on the Zimbabwean music scene and we consulted with our programming partners, Unplugged Zimbabwe, Jibilika, Book Café and Simuka Comedy among others,” said the Shoko Festival official.
Being an urban cultural festival, their target audience is ages between 16 and 40 years, people who enjoy arts entertainment, urban culture and learning about the advances in technology.
