A weeklong music spectacle slated for Gaborone

Maureen Odubeng | Thursday June 26, 2014 14:02

 

The week will feature a variety of entertaining activities, which will include choral music show, jazz festival, an international music show, poetry, comedy, culture night, fashion show and many more.

The seven-day event is the brainchild of local events management company Leapfrog.

Leapfrog managing director, Thapelo Fish Pabalinga, said the annual August event, in its first year, offers an opportunity for Batswana artists from a broad spectrum to showcase their abilities by performing in front of a large crowd, comprising of local and foreign spectators.  “It is also an opportunity for Gaborone as a city to tell its story.

Various local and international artists have been lined up to come and perform at this inaugural event. An artist workshop has been arranged that will seek to create long-term strategic partnerships with visiting artists, record labels, corporates so that we further enhance the music and arts industry in Botswana,” he said.

Pabalinga said the event also aims to attract tourists to Gaborone by showcasing Botswana culture to the outside world. He added that the event has potential to expose Botswana brands both locally and internationally.

“The Gaborone International Music and Culture Week is envisaged to eventually stake its claim amongst the world’s best music events in the region, just as similar to the other known popular ones. As the saying goes ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’, this is certainly the beginning of a long journey that will build this event into a calendar event of note,” he said.

Pabalinga said Leapfrog would not leave anything to chance, explaining that they have engaged a team of experienced individuals with expertise in running shows of this magnitude.

“The team assembled to run and manage the event has a lot of experience having managed events in Botswana, Swaziland, South Africa etc. The team has members that worked on the U2 -360 degrees World Tour, Usher’s OMG Tour, R Kelly’s Ladies Night Tour. This is to ensure GIMC is run professionally by a skilled team of experts,” he said.

Pabalinga said the event with the variety it has is structured in such a way that it will appeal to both the young and older members of society. “Just pick and choose what best speaks to you, in that you would have celebrated your city as well. GIMC certainly has something in store for any and everyone,” he said.

Pabalinga said artists scheduled to perform at the seven-day spectacle would be revealed next week.