Varsity Wars Summer Edition to empower varsity students
Maureen Odubeng | Sunday October 22, 2023 06:00
The event based on information provided by Events Lounge and Media Marketing Coordinator, Mooketsi Kokole, will be in two phases being the ‘Sports and Activity Day’ and an ‘After Party’.
The Sports and Activity Day will feature Beach Volleyball, a 5-Aside Football Tournament, FIFA tournament, a Snooker/Pool tournament, Battle of the DJs, Battle of Artists, Best Dancers and Go Kart Racing.
“The second phase of the event is an After Party with a line-up of artists and prize giving to celebrate the success and efforts of all the participants. This would include both university artists and local artists. He further said the purpose of the event is to steer the youth to start thinking along the lines of commercialising their artistic skills.
“Our vision is for a thriving local economy that gives opportunity and space for university students to flourish. The purpose of this event is to create a sustainable community support structure that tackles university students issues and affects positive socio-economic change,” he said. Kokole said the country used to have a number of talent search shows/events, and the shows were a good development vehicle for upcoming artists, but those events/shows have since disappeared.
“Talent grooming events that used to be there such as My African Dream and Junior Achievement Botswana are no longer there. I am a product of Junior Achievement Botswana and I will tell if I hadn’t met it in primary school I wouldn’t have developed the business side of me that I have right now.
With these tertiary schools, we proposed that grooming shows or events somehow got lost and they need to come back,” he said. He said right now there are artists who solely focus on the craft side and they forget to understand that this is a business that is supposed to sustain you.
“Yes there is where talent can take you, but there is an element of structuring your talent to make sure it is sustainable,” Kokole said. He said that winners from different categories will walk away with cash prizes and get assistance with exposure both locally and internationally, further explaining that artists need to build their brands.
He said times have changed and it is as important as ever for each and every individual to ensure that they register a business and have a side hustle even if they are employed.
He explained that sadly most student artists get paid about P500 for performances, explaining that the exploitation these artists experience is a result of a number of factors including the fact that most have not registered businesses and as a result do not even have business accounts. He said most of the people who hire artists will then choose to pay them a measly P500 on hand.
He said in some of their upcoming events they intend to partner with different entities such as CIPA to empower the student community as well as encourage student artists to go commercial with their talent.