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Bruce Ndlovu
A YEAR is a long time on the Bulawayo night time entertainment scene. Revellers in the city are notoriously fickle and have been known to dump any old joint for the latest new thing in town.
It is for this reason that anniversaries for nightspots are so rare. Openings are as frequent as closures and usually joints that first appeared in the city with a bang disappear with a whimper.
Clubs are therefore known by different names to different people. For some, the corner of 13th avenue and Robert Mugabe Way will always be Visions Night Club while for others it will always be Club Forty40. Such places are legendary on the Bulawayo nighttime entertainment scene. Most of them, however, could barely last beyond their first year.
The night time entertainment business in Bulawayo is cutthroat and few owners and their joints have managed to stand the test of time. It is for this reason that Zarah Lounge is expected to mark its anniversary with pomp and fanfare. The joint celebrates a year of existence this weekend.
Located at the courtyard of what used to be The Lounge Nightclub, Zarah Lounge does not resemble anything that Bulawayo had on offer in the past. When it first opened its doors, naysayers doubted if it would become a hit with hard to please revellers in the City of Kings. Some felt that the joint would fail to find a clientele among The Lounge’s former revellers who would object to their old home’s slick and sudden transformation.
Others wondered if, at the onset of winter, the joint would be able to get people willing to brave the cold temperatures and come and play at night. As an open air joint, summer was thought to be Zarah’s season of fun, but some wondered if heavy rains turned some away from there.
A year later, the joint seems to have conquered everything from the sceptical clients to plummeting temperatures and the occasional shower.
Just how did the nightspot, which some might have thought was doomed to fail, manage to succeed in a period where many businesses across the board closed shop because of the harsh economic conditions?
The answer, according to Zarah Lounge marketing consultant Ntando Ndlovu, lies in the vision that the proprietors of Zarah had before it even opened its doors.
“When we set out to open Zarah we wanted to give people something that blends with Bulawayo weather because it’s always very hot. We needed to bring a breath of fresh air literally. That was our initial angle with Zarah, to give the people something that speaks summer all year.”
Good weather and a nice environment on its own are not enough to keep a nightspot alive in Bulawayo. Ndlovu said that Zarah’s trump card had been its ability to add good music to the package. With some of the city’s finest wheel spinners on the decks, Zarah Lounge has led the way by pushing a brand of house music that blends seamlessly with the kind of environment that is likely to entice a mellow and mature reveller.
“Our emphasis has always been to give the people quality music. If you notice at Zarah, we always play a specific genre, a specific tone of music. So we put a lot of emphasis on getting our DJs to play music that matches that whole open air, relaxed vibe,” Ndlovu said.
For the food lovers, Zarah Lounge has also been a constant delight, dishing out meals that would satisfy the taste buds of even the harshest of food critics.
“We put a lot of emphasis also on the good food that we serve. If you go through our social media pages you’ll realise that there’s great emphasis on the food we serve at Zarah. Most importantly, we make sure that our patrons, the existing and potential customers, are hit with top notch service. We want to encourage beautiful company,” Ndlovu said.
Zarah has proved to be a venue for all occasions and now counts hosting high profile celebrities or public figures among its list of accomplishments.
“It’s the Beach in the City, as we call it. You want to come in and relax and inhale fresh air. The major highlight for us has been the ability to bring in A-listers to make an appearance at Zarah. Since it’s not a club you can’t have big artistes performing and whatnot.
“What we’ve done is, because people need to understand that the brand is international, bring in big names so that they mix and mingle with people. We had DJ Maphorisa having lunch, DJ Zinhle and earlier in the year Lady Zamar. So those were some of our highlights last year,” Ndlovu said.
As the joint celebrates its first anniversary, Ndlovu was quick to emphasise that it was unlikely to lose its identity soon. After a year of success, consistency would be the key to Zarah’s survival into the future.
“What has helped us stay ahead of the curve is knowing what our brand is about – which is giving people a quality open air experience. We give them a very clean environment, a very friendly environment and good customer service.
“We want to amplify those elements that keep people wanting to come back and experience the beach in the city,” he said.
The joint’s celebrations are set to be broken into two events, with the official birthday party set for tonight. At the birthday celebrations, revellers will get a slice of a giant birthday cake while free wine will be served at the door. A Zarah Girls Night Out will mark the end of celebrations on Sunday night.
Online Reporter