The One Love Reggae Festival will not be held in Swaziland this year. The festival which was launched last year by Makhulu Concerts and Café Lingo will be held in Maputo. However, Café Lingo isn’t involved this year.
This was announced by Makhulu Concerts Director Rodger Dunn and confirmed by Café Lingo’s Tanya Aab. Similar to last year, the festival will be held on May 1.
During an interview, Dunn simply said it wouldn’t make business sense to host the festival in the country.
“We identified Mozambique as a suitable location for a festival of this nature and magnitude”, Dunn said. Aab agreed with Dunn and said the business community as well as music lovers would be more receptive towards a festival of this scale.
International artists incorporated into the festival’s line-up last year included 340ML, Jah Seed and Admiral, Ras Tony & Maputoland, Word, Sound and Power, Axicundos, Centraline and Short Cirkit amongst others. Multitudes converged at the old Greyhound stadium to witness a musical spectacular.
Music lovers travelled from all over the SADC region to attend the festival. The One Love Reggae Festival was organised against the backdrop of instilling love and unity amongst the people of the region in times of difficulty.
Not only that, it also sought to bring to focus the plight of many orphaned children in the country and their immediate needs for survival. In fulfillment of this quest, 20% of the profits generated from proceeds during the festival were channelled towards All Out Africa Foundation to assist disadvantaged children with their school expenses.
On another note, the Swaziland National Council of Arts & Culture (SNCAC) partnered with Makhulu Concerts and Café Lingo last year.
The national arts body’s involvement in the festival was to identify local acts which can be incorporated into the festival’s lineup.
Groups under the Association of Swaziland Theatre Groups (ASTG) and the Swaziland Traditional Music Association (STAMA) were eventually chosen to perform.
Reggae Music is stereotyped One Love organisers
The One Love Reggae Festival organisers believe Reggae music is stereotyped in Swaziland.
That is just one of the many reasons the organisers felt it would make business sense to host the festival in the kingdom.
During an interview, Café Lingo’s Tanya Aab who was involved in the festival last year noted that securing sponsorship to host the festival last year was an uphill struggle.
“What we noticed is that Reggae music is just stereotyped.
Companies wouldn’t like to associate themselves with a festival of this nature. Perhaps, if it was a Gospel or Jazz festival, we would have gotten a better response”, she said.
The stereotypes that exist about Reggae musicians is that they smoke marijuana just to mention a few.
Although, Café Lingo isn’t involved in the festival this year, she further said that Mozambican companies have shown a willingness to come aboard. She added that they had dig into their pockets to host the festival last year.
“We made a loss and we didn’t get the support we had anticipated”, she went on to say.
Makhulu Concerts Director Rodger Dunn said it was unfortunate that they had to reach this decision but added they were working on hosting a festival of a much smaller scale than the One Love Reggae Festival in 2011 or even 2012.
SOURCE: SWAZI OBSERVER
great concert dude, surely was a great honor to you was sorrounded by all that raggae stars, and with all the music and incredible ambient the experience is priceless.
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