The Sunday Mail
Leisure Reporter —
THE introduction of Fallin’ at the Victoria Falls Rest Camp in December 2015 as a New Year countdown event was a welcome development for locals as it proved to be more affordable than the more expensive Jameson Vic Falls Carnival.
It cost just US$5 to gain entry into the event with a can of beer going for US$1, which was a bargain even for low income earners. The event, which was running concurrently with the carnival, managed to attract a sizeable number.
After the success of the first edition, organisers decided to host the event again for the 2016 countdown and it was music to the ears of the town’s natives.
While the line-up at the first edition was made up of DJs, this time around they decided to add a twist and brought in live performers with Winky D being the headline act.
Besides Winky D being the biggest draw card, some of Harare’s finest DJs including Rax, Raydizz, Rawse, Trill Angel and The Circuit Party were also thrown into the fray.
Although the event had a slow start, attracting a paltry crowd on the first day, it picked up on the second day, igniting the celebratory spirit.
The DJs on rotation did a good job to keep the party going way into the early hours of Saturday morning with the organisers having to add another hour, which saw DJ Rax and Rawse being called back to play for the patrons who were showing no signs of being tired.
On New Year’s Eve, people came in droves to see their favourite Zim dancehall artiste live on stage as they celebrated the birth of 2017. Winky D’s set on the night was flawless as he belted out old and new hits with the help of the crowd which was singing along throughout the performance.
Speaking to The Sunday Mail Leisure after the event, Rest Camp general manager Olga Mutamba said Fallin’ 2016 had been a massive success.
“These past three days have been amazing and I am happy to say that we have surpassed the numbers that we had last year in terms of attendance,” said Mutamba.
“Last year we had around 1 300 people but this time we managed to host close to 2 500 people, which shows that this event is growing.”
She said the show had a slow start because people were saving up for the final day, which was being headlined by Winky D.
“The main attraction this year was Winky D so most people did not want to start wasting their money before the day that he was performing, which I think was the reason why we had small numbers coming in on the first day.
“On the final day, security had a hard time trying to contain the pressure that was at the gate because there were many people who wanted to get in.”
Winky D never disappoints on stage and his performance ensured that music fans that attended Fallin’ 2016 counted down the hours to 2017 in style. Mutamba said the decision to rope in Winky D was to spice up the event and make it more exciting for the locals.
“Locals rarely get the opportunity to see these artistes performing live because we don’t usually have big gigs such as this, which is why we thought it would be good to also include a big artiste on the line-up.”
While bringing an international act would make their event more attractive, she said it would also mean increasing the ticket prices, something that they wanted to avoid.
“I think we will just continue bringing local acts because what we want is to organise something that ordinary citizens can afford. Bringing an international act is more expensive and so it will mean people will have to pay more to get into the event.”
