The genre has been playing second fiddle in urban music festivals locally and that has been instigated by the emergence of Amapiano and the Limpopo sounds.
AfroTech is a subgenre of house music and infuses tribal, deep and soulful house sounds. The music genre has been popular locally since the early 2000’s. Last Thursday night, revellers were treated to a 12-hour-long line-up that included some of the leading AfroTech DJs and producers.
The six-to-six event started off in a rather calm manner as attendants were settling in to the GICC and readied to be taken away by the music. DJ Rudo opened the show with some soulful sounds and next up was Soulman BW who took the sounds to deeper levels on sets.
Tau followed up in the stage and took things a notch higher as the venue started to fill up. Hapex Guru was up next and also raised a hand as the local mix masters did not disappoint. However, it was Teaz who got the crowd moving, or at least had their heads moving to an electrifying set. Just after midnight, one of the show’s headliners, Enoo Napa took the crowd to ‘heaven’ and left them yearning for more.
Making his appearance in Botswana after a while, Enoo Napa’s set included the sounds of Black Motion, Caiiro and Black Coffee, a pioneer of Afro House music. Enoo Napa handed the baton to crowd favourite, Sun-El Musician.
He too had the revellers on their feet. His set, set his apart from other acts on the line-up with electric African dance sounds. The crowd loved his ‘sing-along' song selects and Sonini, a record he released in 2018 featuring the songstress, Simmy and Lelo Kamau proved a favourite on the night. Popular South African AfroTech DJ and producer, Da Capo jumped on the stage just before the end on Sun-El Musician’s set. The duo held the fort for a few minutes as the crowd went wild before Sun-El Musician left Da Capo do his thing.
The latter was on a menace mood as he went in with the sounds from his latest project, Return To The Beginning. His set was a reminisence of the earlier years of AfroTech and the crowd could not ask for more. Mobile phones were out as no body wanted to miss out to capture the moment.
The 29-year-old was joined by Enoo Napa at the end of the set shutting it down with Da Capo’s remixed version of Josiah De Disciple and Boohle’s Mama song. Local DJ and producer, Raul Bryan was up next and he played songs produced by him and other Botswana AfroTech producers.
It was full capacity at the second edition of the GIMC AfroTech festival. The first was held during the Easter holidays. The GIMC AfroTech festivals are a build-up to the GIMC week long of festivities. The events will start on August 26 with the Fitness and Aerobics session and will end on September 3 with the popular GIMC festival. The festivities include amongst others, the jazz festival, champagne picnic, the theatre, choral musical show, a comedy night and clap and tap gospel music show. Tickets are on sale from Webtickets, Spar and Select Puma Energy Filling Stations.
