Desert race festival flops

Mompati Tlhankane | Monday June 26, 2023 14:59

 

The previous Desert race event was held in Selebi-Phikwe in 2019 with the last Jwaneng one held back in 2018. The Desert Race is one of the biggest events in the Botswana calendar attracting an estimated crowd of about 100,000 people.

The music event was organised by popular music promoter Gilbert Seagile also known as 'PP Wa Pimp' and headlined by veteran Rhumba artist Franco & Afro Musica. Franco alone is a crowd puller, but it seems that the Desert Race spectators did have time to brave the cold weather and attend the festival to see the Ke lela le lona hit maker. The majority of the Desert Race revellers were crowded at local bars especially at the Jwaneng Galaxy Sports Club where it was almost a mini festival.

While it is usually the norm for revellers to hit music festivals after the bars close at midnight, organisers had to wait anxiously for people who would never come. It was even more cold inside the stadium with a crowd that could not even fill one third of the stadium.

Even the local acts who were one the line-up mostly DJs had to perform to a lukewarm crowd as the cold settled in. With no international artist headlining the event as is often the norm with previous events allied to the desert race, there was no hype about the event even the day before or few hours before the occasion.

Some revellers looked disappointed as they bought the tickets only to find an empty stadium. Some even felt that the event was not marketed as it should have because the organisers only announced it too late. In the previous years the event was dubbed 'Desert Music Festival' and organised by Dladleng Entertainment, the same people behind Gaabo Motho Music Festival in Moshupa.

Around 2am on Sunday morning, some artists like DJ Sly, DJ La Puto, Bantu Drums and Lady MB had already performed to the small crowd. Overall, there was nothing to take from the festival except for revellers’ hope that it could come back bigger and better next time.