BAT Centre, Views @ Twenty5, Blue Lagoon Beach, Durban: 25, 26, 27 May 2018
Durban: The fourth annual Zakifo Music Festival – a four-gig, three-venue, weekend-event boasting a wide-ranging line-up of boundary-breaking, cutting-edge musicians from across the African continent and beyond was once again a fabulous success encouraging the directors to commit to the fifth edition next year.
The festival enjoyed balmy weather, incredible music and enthusiastic audiences who supported this brave and tenacious festival. “We are proud and happy that the Zakifo Festival went so well. It is interesting for us to bring so many artists to Durban who are happy to engage and interact with the open-minded Zakifo festival goers. The enthusiasm of the audiences affirmed to us that our choices are on point and that Zakifo delivers a great festival. We enjoyed three very different venues this year and are happy that our experiment in choosing different venues worked out. We want to do a fifth and even a sixth one so will work hard to make that happen!” said Zakifo director Jerome Galabert who is also owner and runner of Sakifo Musik Festival in Reunion Island.
“We have proven ourselves over four years,” concurs Zakifo director Sipho Sithole who is also the founder of Native Rhythms. “We are proud to bring such a brave festival to Durban to expose music lovers to music and artists which they would not usually be exposed to. Zakifo is all about the discovery and experience,” he said.
Always wanting to stay fresh and relevant, this year the festival was presented as a series of linked stand-alone events taking place at three different Durban venues: the BAT Centre, Views @ Twenty5, and Blue Lagoon Beach. The line up included Sekou Kouyate (Guinea) one of the world’s best kora players; Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse (RSA) – South African musical legend; Nasty C (RSA) hip-hop artist; Oki Dub Ainu Band (Japan) blending the music of the Ainu people of Japan with dub, reggae and afrobeat grooves; Flavia Coelho (Brazil) – a hybrid blend of samba and bossa nova sounds and reggae and hip hop rhythms; BCUC (RSA) – “indigenous funky soul”; Nakhane (RSA) SAMA award-winner; Dub Inc (France) – reggae/dancehall band from Saint-Éttienne and Aloe Blacc (USA) – chart-topping soul/funk singer and songwriter.
Zakifo would like to thank their partners The Department of Arts and Culture, Air Austral, eThekwini Municipality, Durban Tourism, Japan Foundation and the French Institute of South Africa for their continued support of the festival.
