Kalawa crowd dwindles. . .As Winky steals show

Nhlalwenhle Ngwenya and Langalakhe Mabhena
ANNUALLY for the past six years Kalawa Homecoming has in an outstanding fashion drawn impressive loyal multitudes that have left local promoters green with envy and rechecking their music promoting lifespan pulse.

After this yearaï¿½ï¿½s Kalawa Homecoming, if the numbers that showed up are anything to go by, Oskido has every reason to worry or take back to the organising drawing board, after all, the devil is always in the detail.

At the onset as the festive season and Kalawa Homecoming announcement were made there was an outcry in regard to change of the venue from Queens Sports Club to AmaZulu and the list of artistes said to perform at the new venue.

Winky D[/caption]

As many expected it to be a night to remember compared with previous editions of the annually held Kalawa Homecoming party, fans did not get the value for their money as most South African artistes who travelled all the way from Durban failed to wow the crowd in attendance with their performance but Dancehall Gaffer Winky D came to their rescue.

The massive crowd turn-up which Kalawa experienced especially on their last yearaï¿½ï¿½s party which obviously was attracted to see the then SAaï¿½ï¿½s hip-hop rivals Cassper Nyovest and AKA sharing the stage for the first time, were not seen on this yearaï¿½ï¿½s edition with many people stating that the venue of the show, AmaZulu Sports Club was not strategic to host the party.

One of the revellers who attended the show on Wednesday, who identified himself as Zibusiso Mpofu, expressed his views on why people didnaï¿½ï¿½t attend the aï¿½?All-whiteaï¿½? Kalawa party with his reasons based on the performance line-up.

aï¿½?Most people didnaï¿½ï¿½t attend this yearaï¿½ï¿½s party because the line-up was weak. This year Gqom genre is the one making waves both in South Africa and Zimbabwe, at least if they had tried to accommodate Distruction Boys into the performance ship many people could have attended,aï¿½? said Zibusiso.

As the legendary DJ Fresh exercised his skills on the decks, many people started to vanish from the stage with only those understanding deep house remaining dancing to the perfectly polished stage piece.

When the crowd was almost out of the party craze mode, Dancehall Gaffer Winky D restored the festive mood as people thronged the stage to witness the on point Ninja President.

Even though he didnaï¿½ï¿½t perform his latest songs like Dzemudanga and MaDrinks Mucup which are still not common to the Bulawayo crowd, Winky kept everyone on their feet as he performed most of his hit tracks like Disappear, 25 and Gafa Party which saw people singing along on each song he performed.

Apart from other South African artistes like Mpumi, DJ Sox, Character, Nokwazi and the trio of Stiff comprising of the Luveve-bred Diliza, credit has to be given to Durban Kwaito kingpin Professor who dazzled fans with his Umlazi street wise lingo lyrics as he performed hit after hit.

The Godfather of Kalawa Jazmee Oscar aï¿½?Oskidoaï¿½? Mdlongwa closed the party as he kept everyone on his feet as his stage piece brought nostalgic moments with his track-list dominated with old school music.