17 Mar 2014

Despite a disappointing start, the weekend Hamptons Jazz Festival that was held at Duma Showgrounds lived to its billing.

Having been slated to start at noon, the festival only started at 5 pm. The day was marred by clashes between bouncers that were tasked with manning the VVVIP section and a VVVIP ticket holder who complained that the event was taking too long to start, and proceeded to shoot a video and post it online to share his dissatisfaction.

Soon after the altercation, rumour circulated that South African musical band Freshly Ground would not be performing because they did not board a Botswana-bound flight as a result of failure to buy them tickets.

A statement on their official website read “Woke up at 4am to catch our flight to Botswana. Deeply disappointed to find that tickets had been cancelled due to non-payment.

We regret that once again due to negligence on the part of @Hamptons Promotions we will not be able to make our performance in Gaborone today. Very very sad that we are once again leaving our beautiful fans in Bots disappointed.”

BOPA tried talking to the festival organiser Debbie Smith at the event and she said she could not talk to the news agency because she was busy with the day’s preparations and promised to talk to them as soon as she was free and she never did.
Thereafter, her mobile rang unanswered.

Jazz lovers however,took solace from Hugh Masekela’s performance that brought the roof down and reminded everyone that age is nothing but just a number, as he belted his tunes and danced the night away.

With his trusted trumpet and live band, the elderly jazz man put a lot of other younger jazz artistes to shame as he put up a world class performance and the crowd responded to every lyric and gesture he made.

Hugh Masekela is like fine wine that just gets better with time and he never showed signs of slowing down when he was on stage, much to the appreciation of jazz lovers who parted with their hard earned money to have a day of entertainment.

Local acts including songstresses such as Samantha Mogwe, women of Jazz Kearoma Rantao and Nnunu Ramogotsi held their own and showed why they are loved locally and abroad.

Ndingo Johwa also had an okay performance with his Barry White like voice and still reminded people that he is around, even though he has been quiet for some time.

At the end of the day, jazz lovers could not thank themselves enough for enduring the waiting for everything turned out for the good. ENDS