www.zimdancehall.com

Well the SAMA Festival 2009 on the 30th of August had its share of good,bad and the urgly...starting with the GOOD the promoters Y2K Promotions must be applauded for showing courage and faith in the feature of Zimbabwean music by investing in the young and untried artists and bringing them forth even thou it wont leave them with a heffy bank account but it was a rare festival something will be probably be talking about in the near future,we had young artists from different genres like the UK chart topping band 'Noisettes' fronted by Shingai Shoniwa' who are used to perfoming at UK festivals like T4 in the park over 30 000 people and this was a challenge to them as they were perfoming to a smaller crowd and also the type that would not nomally listen to their type of vibes but they rose to the occasion starting with hit single 'don't upset the rhythm' which also had the group of paramedics team rushing to catch a glimse of the perfomance,for Shingai this was quite an achiement as she got to formally introduce herslf as an artist to her Zimbabwean people and also included an impromptu with some shona words like 'iwe' she commanded the crowd proffessionally even when the band left as they had come from a show in France she remained behind with her family,mingling with the crowd and enjoying the other acts,another act who rose to the occasion was Zambian artist DANNY who was also the first act on the stage and he dominated it with charisma also showcasing his dancers who got the crowd in fits,unknown to most of the people there he performed as if he is a regular perfomer with this crowd going to show that in Africa only artists from SA,Ghana,Nigeria are considered for awards,Sniper Storm who success has been overshadowed by rival Winky D stood his ground on neutral territory and shook the place up even thou most of the tracks he perfomed were from his new album 'the voice' and they were still new to most people,he commanded the stage which so much dominance proving to the masses he is a force in the business also mentioning he is not afraid of anyone in the business,he did his old tunes like 'hazvisi bho.dzikama'one room,hubhinya' ,gede gede' to the delight of the crowd and also put the roof on fire with tracks 'chirungu',madhara'30 000,'musoja' and more from that perfomance alone we would gladly crown him the 'King of Zimdancehall', Mafriq were a class act with Pauline -Roki's ex wife,discord and tunga t who also brought the place down when he did his song 'zii' on the upclose and personal riddim randomly dropped in by Lady Gee 2 ,they perfomed tracks from their latest album and they showed they have blended well with their afro-urban sound also having a guest appearance from Roki' on 'ndizvo chete',Roki came forth as he was the most anticipated artist to perform and you could see that by the way the crowd gathered the stage,missing his dancers he did all his dance moves to the delight of the crowd doing songs like 'suzzanna'misodzi,which featured yombre,maidei,chidzoka and also a tribute to the late Culture T by doing a cover of  the Zimdancehall theme song 'Satani' also on show was Allen Daura aka AD who was promoting his single 'chimbomira' and he did the song with a female modelling on stage and he on hand with his camera crew doing video shoots and interviews,Dubbie Benzie also made an entrance supported by Simple Dread and a flag carrier just like how Sizzla/ Capleton do it doing a quick set of less than 5minutes because of time.

THE BAD..of the event was the weather which also kept the majority of artists and VIP tucked in the VIP booth for a long period of time and the fans always hoping it doesn't rain heavily as it was an open event,also the lack of a event co-odinator who was expierinced in organising and pushing things forward because from the moment King Alred left the event before 6pm leaving Lady Gee 2 on the turn tables another female who was given the task to do programme line up and such had no clue which artists where booked for the show,what time the event is going to end ,how long the artists on stage were meant to perform and all these loop holes resulted in all UK based artists failing to do their sets except AD,through artists co-odinating Jusa had to invite all the artists to just do a few bars on the Konzeresa riddim  with Fire Flex,Warhead,Alfire,Mr Bryce,Slaggy all performing with a lowered mic's and the worst was to come as the selector refused to put a riddim for Kudzi Ku who had to resort to doing an accapella of his hit tune 'hardcore' and this was really a good thank you to all the UK artists who had dedicated their time and money promoting this event.

THE UGLY ..of this event is mainly the admission fee after two big acts pulled out at the last minute (Thomas mapfumo & Trompies) the fee was reduced to 20 pounds from 25 pounds which left so many people fustrated as i was hanging outside the gate for about 4hours watching the proceedings i saw so may people reaching the gate and then make a quick gate away back to their cars and having a word with some trying to pursed them into coming in they found the fee a bit over the top as two big acts were missing.another dreadful thing was the no show for the artist most Zimdancehall fans wanted to see Winky D who was at the King Alfred bash the previous night but did not even appear at the event much to the frustration of the crowd and the promoters failed to make an give a statement on why Winky D was not at the venue and they have Sniper Storm to thank for givng a resounding perfomance which quickly blew the fact that Winky D was not there out of people's minds.and last but not least the date proved to be the events major downfall as the ZimFest approaches and a lot of Tuku's UK tours....look out for video clips of the event coming soon