ESWATINI COUNTRY MUSIC FESTIVAL UNVEILED

EZULWINI – Get your cowboy hats and boots ready for Eswatini’s very first Country Music Festival!

The festival, known as the Eswatini Country Music Festival, will be happening for the first time on July 28, 2018.
The festival will be held at the Riders Ranch in Sidvokodvo.

Hosting the event  is the Swaziland Country Music Association (SCMA). This is an association that was formed in  2011 and its purpose is to bring country and western musicians together. Also, the association wants to make sure that this type of music is well-understood and followed.

The association, which now has a fully-fledged executive committee, is also registered with the Swaziland National Council of Arts and Culture (SNCAC).
Currently the association has over 250 subscribing members and hopes to get more as it is on a mission to identify more artists who happen to love the country and western music.
During the launch held at Happy Valley Hotel on Wednesday, the association said it had always been its wish to host such a festival in the country.

Elvis Jele the SCMA President, said they felt it was time they bring Country music to the forefront and hoped that this would be an annual  event.
“The Eswatini Country Music Festival is aimed at improving the music genre in the country and have it recognised as a brand,” he said.

He added, “We also want to give artists an opportunity to showcase the talent they have been nurturing for so long. Country music has had little or no exposure in the country, and this is one way we wish to rally government, corporates, organisations and the country at large to pay attention to and begin to recognise Country music.”
He said in the past, this genre had been left out in multiple awards ceremonies locally and yet got recognised internationally. Citing Dusty & Stone who hoisted the country’s flag high in the United States of America in 2017, when they won Best International Duo at the Texas Country Music Awards.

“Although we have seen a lot of changes recently, this festival is one way of making our voice heard, and we request the attention it deserves,” he said. The changes Jele talked about are that this year, the MTN SWAMA Awards have included a Country & Western Music category. Swaziland Arts and Music Association President Melusi Dlamini, said they had noticed this unfairness last year and made sure that they included the category this year. “We have the country music category this year, all that fans of this genre need to do is  vote for their favourite artists,” said Dlamini.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: