Tourism Night awakens Victoria Falls

via Tourism Night awakens Vic Falls – DailyNews Live by Maxwell Sibanda

Tourism Night awakened the resort town of Victoria Falls as various musicians took turns to shine and receive delegates to the UNWTO assembly which officially opened on Saturday.

The musical night which has been dubbed Tourism Night by organisers, the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA), lived up to the high expectations from the people of Victoria Falls and indeed the visiting guests who formed part of the blistering crowd.

Taking place at Victoria Falls Primary School, thousands of people thronged the school’s spacious grounds and covered all space available. The crowds, in their thousands responded to the night’s music until 3am, Sunday without any incident.

The concert started off early in the evening as the Zesa personnel battled to power the concert, only to be rescued by a generator.

Crowd favourites Alick Macheso, Suluman Chimbetu and Jah Prayzah gave Victoria Falls audiences something to remember as each performed for 30 minutes in a tight programme that also saw performances by award winning Mbira Dzenharira. The UNWTO song was also presented to Zimbabweans for the first time and what a gem.

Sugar Chagonda who was co-host at the event did an exceptional job as he punctuated messages on tourism in between performances.

Mokoomba, the Victoria Falls-based group showed their home folks how they were conquering Europe and the rest of the world with a classic performance that left all spell and bound.

The group which has been doing wonders across the globe had never performed before in Victoria Falls.

Band leader, Mathias Muzaza speaking to the Daily News before his performance said the world was watching in admiration as the group continued to shine.

“This is our first time to perform here and I am delighted that it is happening before all these thousands of people. Although I have performed in many countries at festivals, the crowd I see today is one of the biggest we have performed for before.”

“As a group we are here to show our brothers and sisters what they have heard about our musical journey and success.”

Singing in their native Tonga language, the band leader’s rising voice reminded many of the internationally-renowned music icon, Salif Keita.

Even without understanding the lyrics, one is bound to  fall in love with the band’s sheer composing brilliance and a stage work so choreographed that it leaves little room for criticism.

Dub poet Albert Nyathi performed during the night to the delight of the audience, most of whom had only seen him on television.

But here was the poet himself, dressed in his traditional Zulu gear and thundering words throughout his performance.

The crowds enjoyed Sandra Ndebele’s performance as the diva shook her stuff in seductive dance routines that are well known to be part of her act.

Her dancing girls were top notch and the audience liked their performance.

Our sister from Botswana, Slizer was equally good at her task, joining Ndebele for a dance before she took over the stage where she danced like no other. Slizer can dance and her accompanying disco sound complemented very well to a deserved 30 minute of non-stop music.

Journalists and delegates from all over the world witnessed the musical.