The clock is ticking down to this year’s Sauti za Busara in Zanzibar. This is East Africa’s prime music festival, and a feast of good music from around the world – in particular from African musicians and the African diaspora. From 11 to 17 February, the UNESCO world heritage site that is Zanzibar’s Stone Town will play host to an array of exciting musical spectacles.
Compared to many music festivals, this is affordable – the most you will pay as a tourist is US$64 (R486) for a VIP pass for the entire four-day festival, and locals pay 2,000 Tanzanian shillings a day to attend – under US$2 – so crowds are genuinely mixed.
Musical styles that you can expect to hear include the Zanzibar flavours of taarab and kidumbak, which meld sinuous Arabic musical stylings with African drums, and Bongo Flava from the Tanzanian mainland, a unique rap style that often addresses social issues rather than aping US hip hop and gangsta rap.
Other artists come from as far afield as Egypt, the Gambia, Guinea, Senegal, Mayotte, Uganda, Zambia, Mozambique, Kenya, Ethiopia, Norway and the USA. From South Africa, original kwaito artist Thandiswa is playing.
At the moment, the entire island of Unguja (Zanzibar’s main island) is subject to a power cut that has lasted since 10 December, and it looks likely that electricity will not be restored until 20 February, but festival organisers are still committed to making Sauti za Busara run smoothly, and are determined not to let infrastructure issues spoil the fun.
You can find out more about the festival here: http://www.busaramusic.org/festivals/2010/index.php or instead plan for the Zanzibar International Film Festival in June-July if you are more of a celluloid boffin.
