BY PHUMZILE NDLOVU
MALKERNS – Bigger and better is an understatement to explain the excitement and the growth of the brand of the MTN Bushfire Festival, as this year over 20,000 festivalgoers are expected to attend the festival daily, according to Festival Director Jiggs Thorne.
Thorne shared with this publication that this year there are 4500 campers who put up the camping site, which opened yesterday. The campsite is usually for international festivalgoers and locals who don’t want to travel during the three-day festival. This year also saw panellists take on the MTN Bushfire Art Round Table, which began in the morning. The panellists came from across the globe, and they shared their knowledge on how to monetize the music and art industries.
It is worth mentioning that the gates to this year’s festival opened at 4.04 p.m. with excited festivalgoers who couldn’t wait to enter the venue.
This year has several stages, namely the Main Stage, Amphitheatre Stage, Ballentines Stage, Bring Your Fire Zone, The Barn, Amphitheatre, and Heineken Stage.
The first performance at this year’s edition was by the band Madalitso from Malawi. The duo’s performance kicked off at 6 p.m. at the Amphitheatre Stage. The last performance is scheduled for 1.15 a.m. by DJ Sebb.
The first act to perform on the Main Stage was Seba Kaapstaad at 7 p.m. The last performance is scheduled for 1 a.m. by Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness from South Africa.
In an exclusive interview with this publication, the Madalitso duo from Malawi shared that this was their debut performance at the MTN Bushfire Festival. They opened their one-hour performance with a gospel song. The duo revealed that they always open their performances by giving thanks to the Lord. They also revealed that even though they are known globally where they have performed, they would still like to be relatively known in Africa as well.
Also worth noting is that this year, travel has been made easier for drivers to ease traffic congestion; as the road leading to the festival grounds was ‘converted’ to be one-way. When talking to this publication, Regional Traffic and Transport Officer Samuel Mamba shared that they ”closed’ off the road just after 2.30 p.m. to make travelling easier for motor vehicles and to ease up the traffic.
Also noted was that Eswatini TV has also put a makeshift studio at the venue where they are broadcasting. The TV station has guest presenters from neighbouring countries namely the Black Chinese Guy, South African media personality William Lehong and Zambia’s Diamond TV host and content producer, Kasonde Wellingtone through their Kulture Xchange programme. Also spotted was Eswatini Broadcasting Information Services (EBIS) booth as well as other media houses, both local and international.
The first day of the festival is expected to close at 2.30 a.m.
