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Dady Mimbo welcomed early visitors to the
22nd Africa festival in Wuerzburg with trance music from
Cameroon before the official opening ceremony . In order to keep
the visitors in festive mood and give a taste of what could be
expected in the next festival days, his performance was followed
by the South African music artist Zivaduma that provided
entertaining mixture of percussion and pop music. The Official opening ceremony began at about 18:30 CEST in the presence of some African diplomats, music stars, German government officials and invited guests. The Lord Mayor of Wuerzburg, Georg Rosenthal presented a brief history of Africa Festival, thanked the august guests for accepting the invitation and praised the diligent work of the organizing team. He later introduced the South African Minister of Arts and Culture, Lulu Xingwana, who gave an exciting speech about South Africa and the upcoming Soccer World Cup. |
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Each year, the festival organizers award
African music artists or organizations for their exceptional
engagements or positive social impacts. This year, the Africa
Festival Award recipients include the South African voice Vusi
Mahlasela and the Ghanaian acrobatic theater group Adessa.
Adessa has been performing at the Africa Festival since the
first event to the delight of children in particular. With
snacks, drinks, music interludes and acrobatic performance by Adessa,
the opening ceremony induced an atmosphere of togetherness that
prevailed at the festival. |
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The enjoyment continued after the opening
ceremony with the performance of Dobet Gnahore, a powerful
vocalist from Ivory Coast, on the open air stage. Later in the
evening, live concerts of Vusi Mahlasela and the young versatile
South African Afro-Soul diva, Lira, kept the visitors in high
spirits. |
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| Vusi Mahlasela |
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The second day of the festival started with
a discussion podium with the title “Good Morning South Africa.
How are you?” in which the music artist Lira and
the South African Minster of Arts
and Culture among others discussed post apartheid South Africa,
the social as well as economic impact of the Soccer World Cup.
As usual visitors could visit the restaurants, walk around the
market and shop or attend other programs of the event such as
film shows, theater, photo exhibition, percussion sessions and
discotheques in the evening.
The open air stage featured Adjiri,
African world music from Ghana, Foumata Diawara from Mali and
Djamel Laroussi from Algeria. The first evening concert featured
energetic performance by Chiwoniso and Max Wild paying tribute
to Sam Mtukudzi, who was supposed to perform at the festival but
died in a car accident a few weeks before the festival. One of
the well known South African music groups, Freshlyground, later
took on the stage to deliver a harmonious blend of R&B, pop,
house, rock and jazz. |
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| Lira |
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| HIV Aids in South Africa was the topic of the discussion podium on the third day of the festival. Members of two organizations actively involved in caring for the infected and educating the public explained the difficulties encountered in their projects as well as their accomplishments. |
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Freshlyground lead Vocalist Zolani Mahola |
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On
the open air stage, Les Espoirs de Coronthie from Guinea,
Layori from Nigeria and Carlou D from Senegal entertained
the visitors. Mariana Ramos, the beautiful voice from Cape
Verde opened the evening concert with a mixture of ballads,
blues, pop and afro-beat. Her performance was followed by
the concert of the renowned Senegalese music artist Youssou
N’dour. |
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The last day of the festival, May 24
2010, began with a press conference with Youssou N’dour
under the title “Is poverty in Africa the result of bad
government?”
The
weather remained sunny and the open air stage offered
interesting music artists.
The reggae band, Tidall Waves
from South Africa, Mellow Maroc, a band made up of German
and Moroccan musicians, and Kwani Experience, a young South
African band provided the visitors with music combinations
from reggae, pop, rock, gospel, soul and percussions.
The last shows of the Africa
Festival Wuerzburg 2010 are two live concerts; the first
with Takana Zion, a reggae music artist from Guinea and the
second with Dele, the Ghanaian-German versatile singer and
guitarist. In all, over 100.000 visitors were counted over
the four days of peaceful festival with a lot of sunshine. |