05 Dec 2022

Five music producers of repute from Botswana, Zimbabwe and eSwatini strongly believe that there is value in collaboration and that coming together will not only mean success for their events, but artistes from their respective countries as well.

It is for this reasons that Fish Pabalinga of Gaborone International Music Concert, Walter Wanyanya of Jacaranda Music Festival in Harare, Bongani Dlamini of MTN Bushfire Festival in eSwatini and Craig Bright and Ryan Christian both of VicFalls Carnival in Zimbabwe have agreed to collaborate to grow the creative industry in the SADC region.

Making a commitment during the Botswana Music and Entertainment Week seminars in Gaborone, the creative quintet indicated that as the industry bounced back post COVID-19, there was a need to explore avenues of making money as a sector, without depending on their respective governments.

“Collaboration will mean us sharing knowledge to improve our events, rather than compete among ourselves,” Wanyanya noted and said festival collaboration would attract crowds.

As all these festivals are established and with big following across the region, Pabalinga said one element of growing them in the region would be to cross-sell each other’s event. 

“We can also as a team approach DSTV and offer our content to the regional broadcaster at a fee, which will also generate money for us,” stated Pabalinga.

He said they would collectively work to solicit an artistes who  would otherwise not be able to be booked as individuals because of budget.

Advocating for the cultural exchange, Dlamini said the partnership would enhance cultural cooperation among the respective countries. 

He said through the alliance, they could also save costs by developing a Memorandum of Agreement/Understanding where artistes could be engaged minus monetary benefits.

“Covering logistics of getting a certain artiste to one of these festivals through our collaboration would not only be entertainment to the patrons, but it would be an opportunity for an artiste to potentially reach their preferred international market,” said Dlamini, adding that such collaborations where there was no monetary value for artistes would have training incentives.

He said a partnership would allow them to assist each other identify artistes doing well from participating countries and worthy of being booked and give them international exposure.

“We can do more as a unit and give our creative sector in the region a boost and brand, similar to what other regions even in Europe are currently doing,” Bright stated, adding that regional collaboration on festivals would also help market each other’s events across participating countries.

Sharing the sentiments, Christian said a partnership would not only attract crowds from participating countries, but also give the region an opportunity to stage quality events.

He said doing so would add value most importantly to quality of equipment used for the festival and in turn staging quality and successful events. ENDS