Can Wasafi festival be a game changer?

Dar es Salaam. The last time Diamond performed in Tanzania in a fully fledged concert was some 18 months ago and that was at the WCB Beach Party at Jangwani Sea Breeze.

It was a spectacle of its own, and since then so much has happened in the industry but above all it is the opening of the Wasafi TV which seems to have hit the headlines louder than anyone had ever hoped.

Even with his long absence he remains a crowd favourite at least as confirmed by his cameo appearance at the Davido show over the weekend with his songs such as African Beauty and Kwangwaru doing well.

You can’t take anything away from self styled workaholic, for the last time I checked he remains the only artiste in this region to own a media house and soon, a reality TV show is set to follow before the radio is turned on.

This week he announced that they are embarking on a new journey which includes festival which they have christened the Wasafi Festival which is more of a replica of the Fiesta which has been around for almost two decades now.

All has not been well for sometime now between the WCB entity and some of the people who mentored them, though Diamond continues to remain coy on the fall out, sources say the rift between them there is an air of a vendetta. The stakes have changed the WCB team and Diamond’s arrival at a news conference in Dar es Salaam was quite eye-catching as they replicated the ‘Kim Jong Un’ moment with body guards walking on foot.

It is quite difficult to tell whether the WCB CEO faces such a security threat to necessitate such protection from the men in black suits or it is the usual glamour that accompanies showbiz. We should leave that to him and his team to think about it for now.

The news conference was to announce the Wasafi TV and StarTimes partnership but then it veered off to none issues, as he laboured at length to explain why he was at the Davido show over the weekend.

The Wasafi festival as Diamond and his WCB crew promise is set to be a game changer in the organisation of festivals in the country, as it promises to pay artistes handsomely.

The model of the festival’s organisation is still not known but many suspect that it is going to be a replica of what we have seen in the past with Fiesta.

It therefore remains interesting to see the kind of model that Wasafi festival is going to roll out given the high publicity that they have already put up.

But even then the power brokers within the WCB entity promise that it is going to be something that the industry hasn’t seen in a long while with several international artistes lined up .

In the absence of an alternative festival that tours the country maybe this is what many local artistes have been waiting for given the fact that not so many can afford to organise their own local tours.

These will be exciting times especially with Diamond’s pledge to work with all artistes irrespective of their affiliation.