03 Mar 2014

Drizzles of rain that poured out from the early hours of Saturday, March 1 cost jazz lovers an opportunity to have great time with the crème de la crème of jazz musos.

The festival, titled the Hamptons Summer Jazz Festival was slated for the Duma FM grounds. And due to the rains, the show was postponed to a later date to be announced by the organisers.

The Hamptons Summer Jazz Festival orgnaiser Debbie Smith’s phone went unanswered when trying to confirm the cancellation of the festival. This was after seeing a lot of posts on social media and rumours about the cancellation of the festival.

BOPA got hold of Soares Katumbela who is the manager of Nnunu Ramogotsi and Shanti Lo who were slatted to perform at the festival. He confirmed that though his artists were lined up, they did not perform at the show.

Kearoma Rantao also confirmed that the show did not go on as scheduled and she was informed that it was postponed to a later date.

Though many were torn in between, as there were a lot of activities going on around the city, jazz lovers stood the ground, bought tickets in advance and just waited for the day to enjoy a lucrative line up of artists.

There was the Son of the Soil cultural festival which has always attracted multitudes, while the night before, one of Botswana’s musical export, DJ Fresh had an album launch.

Sports had also taken yet another audience through the famous Mascom Top 8 final game which saw two football giants in BDF X1 and Township Rollers warring and clashing times with the jazz festival. The show organisers, had pulled the best of the best local artists to perform at the show.

The local acts included song stresses such as Samantha Mogwe, women of Jazz Kearoma Rantao and Nnunu Ramogotsi as well as Shanti Lo and Thabang Garogwe.

The jazz muso Ndingo Johwa and Shumba Ratshega of the famous “Loso la monnamogolo” were also slated to perform at the show. South African renowned Jazz giants in Hugh Masekela and Tshepo Tshola and Freshly Grounds was also part of the lineup.

“Who would just let go and ignore such a juicy line up, one just have to get there on time, before the performances, start, stay glued to the stage until the last performance, as all these artists are always a wonder to watch”, said Rebaone Tswiio during a chat in the newsroom, a day before the event.

The day prior to the slatted show, there was a pre-launch of the festival which was held at the Gaborone International Convention Centre.

The launch had almost all the artists who were slatted to perform except Freshly Grounds.

The organiser of the show Debbie Smith promised a thrilling show and hoped that all would have a great time and enjoy what she had put on the platter for them.

Tshepo Tshola who graced the pre-launch, took to the podium and also promised to take it all out for his beloved Botswana audience.

“Everytime I get a call from Botswana, I say “yes”, even before the negotiations because of my love for this country which I developed since my first appearance here in 1969 which has never died and will never die”, he said.

Tshepo Tshola said there is so much talent in Botswana that needs artists to put hands together and make sure that Botswana becomes the mecca outside the confusion and greed seen in record companies in other countries.

He promised Batswana a thrilling performance from deep down his heart, which due to the postponement of the show never was.

One can only sit and wait that it would not be so long before the festival organisers get back to their feet and bring back the show which many had awaited with bated breath. ENDS