Online Reporter
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Reporter
WHEN Davison “Diva” Feliate and his close associates looked at the events calendar in Bulawayo back in 2023, they noticed that something was missing.
Almost every poster on the streets or even social media, advertised events that seemed to cater for younger people only.
From amapiano to hip-hop, all the events seemed to be designed for busybodies, young energetic people who did not mind partying from night until the break of dawn.
It was as if people who were in the later years of their youth or even past it did not exist. It was at that moment that the idea of Private School RnB was born.
“As the crew, we collectively noticed that there was a gap when it came to the events calendar in the city,” Feliate told Sunday Life in an interview. “We noticed that there’s always something for the young, the wild, and free across multiple genres, whether hip-hop or something else. However, there was nothing for the older folk who could afford and wanted to be outdoors. Their only option is to go to restaurants for any kind of fun.
So, we decided to create something that they love because they are old-school fans. They all love old-school and that’s why we decided that we should try this concept.”
While some might have thought that starting an event for older people was a risky manoeuvre, given that it is often thought that this demographic does not like partying, Feliate said they had quickly found out that people that are 30 years old and above had been waiting for an event of this nature for a long time.
“The response was great because we managed to bring together people in their late 20s, early 30s, late 30s, and early 40s up to those in their 50s who still appreciate old-school music. They all appreciate the music and have been coming through to support us,” he said.
After a handful of events, Private School RnB has become one of the city’s premier events, a remarkable achievement given that tickets for the gigs do not come cheap.
Today, when it hosts its first event of the year, dubbed the Lovers Edition, tickets will set back old-school music lovers US$20 at the gate. While this might seem unreasonable compared to other gigs held in the city, which usually feature high-powered South African acts, the Private School events are always oversubscribed. According to Feliate, the pricing model is in line with the organisers’ desire to keep the event exclusive.
“We’ve tried to keep the event exclusive to a limited number of people between 500 and 600 people. Why is that? It’s because we want to offer you a true VIP experience. You can’t say you’re going for a VIP experience event then you’re standing around and scrounging for chairs. We curate the event to make sure that there is seating for all and there’s no VIP section.
“It’s a VIP experience event. The whole event is VIP so as long as you are in the event, you’re getting that experience. So, you will never get a certain area of sitting that is demarcated as VIP because we consider everyone to be equal. All our 500 to 600 patrons are VIP,” he said.
While the event had grown in popularity, Feliate said they did not feel the need to open it up to me people just yet, as they felt that doing so would dilute the unique VIP experience it offered.
“We appreciate the love so far and going forward we expect to grow the numbers. However, we want to do this gradually because we don’t want to suddenly have 10 000 people and go from VIP to commercial just like that. We love the money but we still want to maintain a standard because we want people to forget about all the shows that are there in the city and look forward to ours only. We want people to prepare an exclusive outfit for this event. We want them to prepare with their friends, family and loved ones to just soak in the old-school vibes,” he said.
While the event’s patrons were clamouring for more gigs, Feliate said they would only consider adding one more to their calendar, as they wanted to keep their concept fresh. Last year, three Private School RnB events were held throughout the year.
“Going forward, we might just increase the number of events in the year. So far, we are doing three per year but going forward we might add another one if need be. We also don’t want to saturate our patrons with an event every month. We don’t want to get too commercial because we don’t believe that people should get used to be. We encourage those that have never been to our events to take a chance because they will not regret it,” he said.
