BY DELISA THWALA
MBABANE – Award-winning and former Idols contestant Lloyiso has revealed his readiness for the upcoming Standard Bank Luju Food and Lifestyle Festival.
The RnB singer and songwriter mentioned that he looked forward to his second time in the country. Having been last booked in November last year.
“I cannot wait to be part of this phenomenal event, I’m looking forward to a beautiful time with my beautiful Eswatini people,” said the singer.
The Singer found stardom as a contestant on the eleventh season of Idols South Africa’s singing competition, where he made the top 8. Will be joining artists like Big Zulu, Mandisi Dyantyis, Mango Groove and Sun El Musician among others.
Hailing from just outside Port Elizabeth, Lloyiso is a South African singer, songwriter, and producer who wields thevoice that instantly tugs at heartstrings. It is the kind of voice that shines in any arena whether in front of a laptop camera or under the lights of a festival stage.
Alongside the already announced diverse music line-up and extensive culinary programme, Luju 2023 will celebrate the transformative power of design, and use fashion to shape future generations.
This year’s theme, African Fashion Folktales, focuses on craft mastery, with sustainable materials that become mediums for reclaiming ancestral stories. Through interweaving these tales of our past, we reimagine our future.
Fashion and design elements permeate the festival, coming together in complementary groupings of sensory experiences, supported by the Standard Bank Luju Food & Lifestyle Festival’s focus on promoting small businesses, the creative economy, arts development and African culture.
House On Fire Communications Officer Simon Dawson said, this year, the Standard Bank Luju Fashion Runway show will feature Zimbabwean, Swati, and Mozambican creatives.
He said veterans of the African print to emerging local talent, festival-goers are invited to come together to celebrate a fashion renaissance as Southern African and Eswatini designers redefine the regional fashion scene, supported by art collectives Fabrik Party from Zimbabwe and Mozambique’s AZGO Bazaar.
“ To bring to life the core theme aspects of craft, sustainability and ancestry, the Standard Bank Luju Food & Lifestyle Festival will be facilitating collaborations between local fashion designers and craft brands. This collaborative workshop will stimulate the creative process to produce inspiring and unique work and encourage the use of local and traditional craft techniques in Eswatini’s bespoke fashion sector,” said Dawson.
In addition, he said, the Design and Craft creatives will be tasked with creating a capsule collection to be presented as part of the Standard Bank Luju Fashion Runway on the Mastercard Stage.
Additionally, the collective will create a pop-up fashion performance with local stylists, hair artists and models to be exhibited periodically in the Fashion Café Marketplace.
