Out of Town: 10th Sauti za Busara Festival, Feb. 14-17 2013 @ Old Fort in Zanzibar

Dates: February 14-17, 2013
Venue: Old Fort in Zanzibar
Festival Tickets*: EA Residents US $29, International Visitors US $109
Programme: Festival Timetable

*Festival admission prices vary with citizeship. Find full info here

The Festival
The festival will celebrate a lifetime achievement of bringing together artists and audiences from around Africa and beyond with enriching cultural experiences, promoting cultural diversity and social development for the past 10 years.
Sauti za Busara is an annual music event in East Africa and widely known as ‘the friendliest festival on the planet’. This edition will feature 200 musicians: more than twenty five groups from East Africa and beyond; acoustic and electric, upcoming and established – all performing live.

The Old Fort will host three nights of non-stop live music, with the main programme continuing Friday through Sunday with performances from 5pm until 1am.

The festival also features African Music Films: documentaries, music videos and live concert footage, all focused on promoting the richness and diversity of African music as screened in the amphitheatre of the Old Fort.

Headline Artist Cheikh Lo – Senegal
Headline artist for the 10th edition of Sauti za Busara is internationally acclaimed Baye Fall artist Cheikh Lo from Senegal. A superb singer and songwriter as well as a distinctive guitarist, percussionist and drummer he has personalized and distilled a variety of influences from West and Central Africa, to create a style that is uniquely his own.

To celebrate ten years of Sauti za Busara, the festival showcases “Best of the Best”; audience favourites of past years including Tanzania’s DDC Mlimani Park Orchestra.

Zanzibar’s Culture Musical Club will also showcase at the 10th edition and they remain the most prolific and successful taarab orchestra from East Africa.

Other main acts include Khaira Arby (Mali), Comrade Fatso and Chabvondoka (Zimbabwe), Atongo Zimba (Ghana), N’Faly Kouyaté (Guinea), Nathalie Natiembe (Reunion), Nawal & Les Femmes de la Lune (Comoros/Mayotte), Wazimbo (Mozambique), The Moreira Project (Mozambique/South Africa), Owiny Sigoma Band (Kenya/UK), Mokoomba (Zimbabwe), Msafiri Zawose & Sauti Band (Tanzania), Mani Martin (Rwanda), Burkina Electric (Burkina Faso/USA), Lumumba Theatre Group (Tanzania), Sousou & Maher Cissoko (Senegal/Sweden), Super Maya Baikoko (Tanzania), Peter Msechu (Tanzania) and many more.

Networking Space
Sauti za Busara will continue to host the Movers & Shakers networking forum for local and visiting arts professionals. This networking space facilitates discussions, exchange and development of ideas on the creative industries in the East African region and beyond.

Fringe Events
It’s not just the festival that puts on a show; the local community is encouraged to take part by hosting Busara Xtra fringe events. These include traditional ngoma drum and dance, fashion shows, dhow races, open-mic sessions, after-parties and performances of Zanzibar’s oldest taarab orchestras as arranged by the local community.

For More Information: www.busaramusic.org

Afrika Eye Film Festival Friday Discussion: The Moving Image, Nov. 9 2012 @iHub

The creativez are hosting the first ever, virtual continental collaborative Afrika Eye Film Festival discussion this Friday evening at iHub with our friends African Interactive in Bristol -UK all on Film and Digital Media The theme is The Moving Image

Other than discuss how Digital can expand the audience for the African moving image we will also explore new forms of film production, funding, distribution models and opportunities on collaborative projects between Kenyan and British film makers. All this will happen in a Unique format-depending on where you are on today we -the audience will get to interact with both panels in Bristol and in Nairobi’s iHub via an intergrated weblink

Panel: Nairobi [5-7pm]
Producer, Director- Bob Nyanja
Producer Director – Wanuri Kahiu
Producer, Director, Writer and Film Legend – John. E. Maina

Moderated by Jenny Muigai aka @skinnyfilmmaker

Panel :- Bristol 2-4pm
Writer, Producer – Andrew Mugoya
Producer, Director – Simon Bright

For more info on the event and bios of the panelist click here

The event is free but space is limited so kindly reserve your place by RSVP to this email: thecreativez@gbs.co.ke

Conference: Popular Expression in the Silicon Savanna – Perspectives on the Digitization of Art and Life in Kenya, Jul. 10 2012 @ Goethe

While it remains to be seen whether the digital revolution will bring Kenyas ‘Vision 2030′ to fruition, digital technologies are clearly transforming the landscape of Kenyan popular culture. In Kenya today, popular music is being produced on computers and consumed on mobile phones; fiction is being published, read, and commented upon in blogs; poetry is being podcast; religious and political slogans are circulating on Twitter.

This conference brings together Kenyan and non-Kenyan scholars, intellectuals, and cultural practitioners for lively presentations and discussions on the ways in which digital technologies are transforming the production, consumption, reception, monetization, and politicization of popular expression in Kenya – all with a view toward developing a better understanding of Kenyan society in the digital age.

Organised by Prof. Mbugua wa-Mungai (Kenyatta University) and Dr. Andrew J. Eisenberg (University of Oxford), with support from the Goethe-Institut Kenya and the ‘Music, Digitisation, Mediation’ Research Programme at the University of Oxford, UK

Date: July 10, 2012
Venue: Goethe Institut Auditorium
Time: 10am-4pm
Entry: Free

For more info & programme check G.I. facebook event page