Lake July Festival organiser speaks out
By Peter Tinashe Kaviya
Tawanda Madzara, organiser of the inaugural Lake July Festival which ended Sunday at Lake Chivero has said the event was highly successful although it had a few challenges.
The festival hosted by Ecrag Group in conjunction with Star Fm was held from July 29 to 31 with a Bonfire Party, Beach Party and Beach Picnic being part of the festivities during the weekend long program.
While some of the DJs billed to perform at the festival pulled out at the last minute, some took to various social media platforms protesting against the requirement that they had to pay $50 as registration fee, instead of them being paid for their services.
DJs Stavo, Candyman, Storm and Abra Simmz pulled out of the festival citing differences on contractual agreements with the promoters.
Some like DJ Danny felt the organisers had not been fair by asking DJs to pay a registration fee.
In an interview with Showbiz, Madzara said there was nothing new about asking DJs to pay a fee to play as this was the norm internationally.
“It’s true that we asked the DJs that were taking part in the Beach Party DJ Battle to pay to participate, there is nothing new about that, in fact it is in line with all international festivals where DJ’s willing to take part in DJ battles pay a registration fee as confirmation of their willingness to be part of the battle, after the battle the winner will be awarded prizes for their exploits “ Madzara said.
With many patrons that attended festival complaining about a host of issues among them poor sound, parking and congestion, Madzara admitted that they had noted such complaints and were in the process of conducting a review with hope to improve the next edition of the festival.
“As you know this was the first installment of the festival and we did note a number of challenges. Parking was a problem and we are grateful that the department of national parks came to our rescue by offering the adjacent caravan park,” said Madzara.
“It was a good festival and I’m happy to say our partners and sponsors are happy with the outcome and I think next year will be bigger, as long as the department of parks allow us to use some places we can even have the festival at Lake Kariba, Lake Mutirikwi or anywhere. The only thing is to keep with the theme. It’s a lake festival so all we need is a lake that is big enough for the patrons.”
The Festival saw a host of local artiste and DJs take to the stage with names like Mc Chita, Roki, Myke Pimp, Maffcat and Smyle taking turns to entertain revellers.
