25 Apr 2016

The coming Saturday in Lobatse will be one Saturday that Lobatse residents will live to remember in the music circle.

A massive music festival meant to kickstart the Botswana independence music festivals will take place here.

 Lobatse being the town of firsts, as everything in relation to the country's independence started here, 50 years down the line, history will be repeated as Lobatse kickstarts BOT50 music festivals before spreading country wide.

Coming as a different music festival of its kind, two legislators will highlight it and take to the decks to battle it out as disk jockies in a music festival organised by the Ministry of Youth Sport and Culture.

The two legislators, being Lobatse's Sadique Kebonang and Tonota's Thapelo Olopeng will take stage names as DJ Sadique Vs DJ Olopeng to kickstart independence celebrations music festivals which will then spread across the country to celebrate the arts industry in the country.

Proving to be the biggest music festival ever to come to Botswana in the history of music, the festival will yet again feature close to 45 performances by both artistes and DJ's.

The music festival dubbed Bot50 youth pop up bash will feature big names in the local music scenes in the likes of Vee, Charma Gal, A.T.I., Slizer, Mapetla, , Skazzo, P – Magg , Sasa Klass, Team Distant , LA Timmy , Eskimos and Wizards.

Other artistes scheduled to perform include MMP Family, Ban T, Chrome, Gaone, Big L,  Dramaboi and Katli.

Disk Jockies to learn from the legislators how it is done on the decks will be DJ's, Sly, Izzy, Gouveia, Root, Kenzo, Ricky Lamar, White, Bunz, Zono, Zo Harvey and Kay lo. 

Traditional artistes will also not be left behind as the likes of Culture Spears, Ditiro, Gongmaster, Mafitlhakgosi, Bana ba Ntogwa and Chilenje the Ngwao will perform at the event.

The music festival will run from 8am on Saturday until 6 am on Sunday.

BOT50 coordinator Ms Charity Kgotlafela said it was relevant for the independence celebrations to be started in Lobatse to re – live Botswana history, taking back to 1966 when Botswana gained independence and before then when Lobatse formed as the Botswana's administrative centre.

Ms Kgotlafela indicated that the music festival will only feature local artistes, adding that BOT50 did not rope in any international artiste as a way of showing that indeed Batswana have got talent in the arts industry.

As a way of encouraging Batswana wear Botswana colours, Kgotlafela said the festival will not have any entrance fee, but rather wearing national colours will be an entry ticket to the music festival.

She indicated that revellers who will travel from across the country, using the BR Express will have a 20 per cent discounted fee on the train to get to the music festival destination.

Ms Kgotlafela encouraged all to come to  colour Lobatse blue, black and white and also celebrate their local music talent and best of all to celebrate Botswana's success story in its 50 years as an independent and progressive country. ENDS