When event organizers get it right and delight us with international acts

Two months ago, the longest countdown to a local concert ever was launched in Machakos County on the Macha New Year’s Eve party, an extravaganza expected to feature over ten artistes of international stature.

The ambition of the organisers and the sponsors is so mighty that African artistes mostly from Nigeria and South Africa as well as Kenyan acts will feature in the bonanza as ‘additional acts’ or what one would call curtain raisers.

“It will be the first ever cultural and entertainment festival complete with live music performances, helicopter tours, hot balloons releases, nyama choma festivities, shopping booths and indoor games among others,” Carlos Kioko, the brains behind the concert told Pulse.

“The performances will be done on two stages at the magnificent Machakos Peoples Park.

Both stages will be the pinnacle of good times and merrymaking for enthusiasts from across the East African region.

We are targeting 100,000 visitors over the three days,” he added.

And even as the buzz for another Machakos County showdown sweeps across the land, Nakuru County is making a head start to what is normally the showbiz extravaganza season of the year with Jamaica’s finest Busy Signal set to host one of the biggest concerts ever experienced in the town.

A week after Busy Signal’s visit, another Jamaican singer Alaine will be in Nairobi for yet another hyped concert organised by veteran events’ organiser Big Kev of Trublaq.

With all this on sight and more to be unveiled, music enthusiasts will now be spoiled for choice as Kenya gets its groove back, big music concerts speaking.

“Our mission is to make Nairobi the East Africa entertainment hub it was years back.

We lost our ground as the showbiz capital years ago but we want to regain all this within one year.

That is why we have organised to have a series of international acts to hold concerts in Kenya in the coming months,” said Big Kev, whose Trublaq entertainment outfit began the revival campaign after the successful Konshens concert held at KICC.

“The whole idea is to give fans quality entertainment of international class without overcharging them and that is why we are hosting Alaine at City Cabanas where the general man can access, not uptown places that have been a reserve for the Blankets and Wine and The Circle kind of enthusiasts,” he noted.

“The plan is to give more entertainment to more people.

As we do this, we will start exposing Kenyan artistes to concerts of international standards and have them do collabos with the visiting stars.

We want Kenyan artistes to step up their game, to become real performers who can entertain fans for over one hour nonstop.

That is why we are including Wyre, Redsan and Juacali in the list of the ten local artistes who will be performing alongside Alaine.

Let’s get our showbiz groove back,” Big Kev stressed adding that events’ organisers should stop whining about lack of corporate and government support as “this will come once we get our act right”.

In this list of artistes expected to grace the stage before the end of the year also include Koffi Olomide and Fally Ipupa and the names of American stars Jay Z, Beyoncé, Ciara and Kanye West are being mentioned in this exciting line up.

And as the influx of the long awaited big shows hits the scene, eyes are now fixed on local stars whose performance levels have been wanting even as they argued that the local industry does not truly embrace them as it does foreign artistes.

“It is true that most Kenyan artistes cannot showcase a one-hour show as most don’t have songs that can keep an entire concert running while others are inexperienced when it comes to live performances.

The culture of playbacks is one reason why Kenyan artistes are doing badly when it comes to performances,” Big Kev adds.

In a recent interview, Jaguar defended Kenyan artistes saying they are not being appreciated enough locally.

Some critics however bluntly put it that many of the new school artistes are bad performers.

“Would you imagine watching a music clip or live performance of many local artistes with no dancers as backup?” questions members of the Black Bliggers dance crew.

“We are up to the task. In fact, some Kenyan artistes are far much better than the international stars we all keep talking about. If the right platforms are set, Kenyan stars will show their true colours. However, some keep blaming fans and promoters yet they have nothing much to show and it is those who should up their game,” concludes Jaguar.