City artistes to perform at Jibilika fest

Kasi Lunatics, Break Equation B-boy Crew, Magesh Tornadoes, Rebirth Dance Crew, Schoolboi Fortune, Hip Hop Honeys, H3 dance crew and Antivirus dance crew  are all billed to perform at the festival.

The head judge for the festival is Yeukai from ROLX, a Bulawayo dance crew as well.

This year’s festival, which runs under the theme, “Step up to HIV”, will see 34 dance groups from across the country competing for the honours. This year’s dance fest has an HIV focused theme because the organisers want to use the competition as a springboard for a campaign to alert youths on the dangers of the deadly pandemic.

The Jibilika dance project was launched in 2007 with the aim of nurturing and promoting talent among youths. This year’s fest will see three top groups walk away with $500 each while five outstanding individuals will get $100 for their exploits.

Since inception, the event has helped kick-start the careers of a number of artistes and dance groups. Many of them have been helped to secure contracts with organisations such as Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) and Germany based Hot Afrika.

In an interview yesterday, Jibilika Dance Trust co-coordinator, Plot Mhako, said the festival was looking forward to the participation of Bulawayo artistes.

“I have no doubt that those Bulawayo artistes coming to the festival will bring something different for the fans. Bulawayo crews always bring diversity,” he said.

Mhako said organisers were working on strategies that would prevent the festival from going into another hiatus as had happened in the last three years.

“We have learnt from our past shortcomings and  this show will prove this point because we have already started planning for next year’s event well in advance,” he said.

Member of rap group Kasi Lunatics, Talent “Krusty” Kaseke, said the crew was looking forward to performing at the festival as well as engaging in other activities in the capital.

“We are looking forward to performing at the festival. However we will not be doing only that as we have lined up interviews with ZBCtv. We will also collaborate with other rappers from Harare during our stay there,” he said.