Hifa ends on a high note

The highlight of the show was when Senegalese star Baaba Maal joined Mokoomba on stage to the delight of the home crowd.

Mokoomba had the honour of closing the festival amid a flurry of fireworks, an honour which was normally a preserve of foreign artistes.

Phew! What a week it was!
For once Harare resembled a rainbow city with people from different ethnicities, race and colour converging at different venues dotted across the Sunshine City.

Buoyed by huge crowd, artistes from different genres delivered top-notch performances. Of note was the performance by artistes such as Zambian Mampi, South African Nkulee Dube, Senegalese Baaba Maal and Zimbabwe’s Mokoomba.

Mampi delivered a superb show a far cry from the rather damp squib she exhibited at Independence Eve a fortnight ago at Rainbow Towers Gardens.

The singer was full of energy and verve and this time around she managed to control her vocal chords with considerable ease.

Nkulee Dube showed that she is keeping her father’s legacy alive with a good show that left many in the crowd craving for more.

Together with another legend’s daughter, Selmor Mtukudzi, the two connived to impress with a memory evoking performance. It was a marvel to watch the singers fuse reggae, traditional sounds and rhumba.

Hifa’s decision to include local artistes such as Suluman Chimbetu, Jah Prayzah and Sniper Storm was a welcome development.

Sniper made his presence felt when he delivered a high-energy performance filled with spark and dance. He proved his critics wrong and he keeps maturing with each show.

The organisation of the festival was top notch, though there were a few grey areas here and there.
Although the festival went according to plan it does not mean there were no glitches. It appears the Telecel Main Stage is becoming too small for the big names.

The Opening Night was sold out such that some people lost valuables because it was overcrowded. It was the same case with Mi Casa and Suluman Chimbetu’s shows, where a record crowd turned up.
Hifa head of communications Tafadzwa Simba said there were no immediate plans to move the festival to a new venue.

Another disappointment was that there was no shuttle service to ferry fans to different venues like in previous editions.

The few shuttle buses that were operating were meant for artistes. Parking space was also a nightmare with street children taking charge. However, kudos to the organisers for an incident-free festival!

Other festival organisers in the country and abroad should take a leaf from Hifa. The Hifa team does not compromise on quality and their PA system is up to scratch. This year’s Hifa edition ran under the theme “What Next?”