April’s nights of bliss

eggs!
But for music lovers, this April is one of the busiest with shows and festivals lined up one after the other.
There is so much in store this month, apart from April Fool’s Day.
What remains to be seen is whether all the concerts scheduled for the month will live up to their billing.
One show is slated for April 2.
It features the Grammy Award winner Donnie McClurkin at the Glamis Stadium. The show is dubbed “Worship with Donnie McClurkin”.
It promises to be a night of bliss as Donnie, a revered pastor in his own right, serenades worshippers with his soothing gospel songs.
Donnie has won three Grammys, 10 Stellar awards, two BET awards, two Soul Train awards, one Dove award and one NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People) Image award for his work.
Divine Concertsound is promoting the show, which will be Donnie’s debut appearance in Harare.
Jazz lovers have a good reason to smile too – the Harare Jazz Festival will be on this month.
The festival is scheduled for April 14. It will see the inaugural Harare Jazz Fest Awards ceremony, followed by the main event on April 16 to be held at Rainbow Towers’ Gardens.
The festival closes on April 17.
One of the guests expected at the festival is South African icon Hugh Masekela who will present the awards.
Hot on the heels of the Harare Jazz Festival will be the much-hyped Sean Kingston concerts slated for April 22 at the Celebration Centre and another on Easter Saturday at Glamis Stadium.
Preparations for the concerts have gone well, with promoters C&A Entertainment promising a world-class show.
Kingston has posted a message about the shows on YouTube. It seems he is looking forward to performing in Harare.
“Whata gwan, it’s your boy Sean Kingston. I am here with my boy Clint Robinson from C&A Entertainment. Zimbabwe, get ready: I am coming! It is real everyone come out make sure you get your tickets. I’ve got a lot of surprises.”
Easter holidays always leave hangovers and within a week the mother of all festivals – the Harare International Festival of the Arts – starts with the usual hullabaloo of international performances.
The six-day festival is running under the theme “The Engagement Party”. It will see some of the amazing performances from both local and international artists.
As in the previous years, Hifa will bring the curtain down on what may be called a “month of activity”.
When contacted for comment, National Arts Council of Zimbabwe deputy director, Nicholas Moyo, said the council was only concerned with international performances.
“We do not clear local shows and the show promoters can have as many shows as they want. But at the council we only clear international acts coming into Zimbabwe.
“As you are aware, Hifa is not a commercial event but a festival which brings international acts to create more entertainment and some of their shows are sponsored events.
“Generally, the law is that as the council, we cannot clear two international shows on one weekend. But there are rare instances whereby we can allow a DJ to perform at a particular venue because we know that the venues serve a particular clientele,” Moyo said.
He said there was no need to panic as month there were only two international acts in April – the Sean Kingston gigs and the Donnie McClurkin concert.