By Thandiwe Kubere
MASERU – Big Events & Hootas Production, in collaboration with partners held the Spring Jump off Lesotho 2023 launch, which was set to unveil the plans of ensuring that one of the country biggest events becomes successful and memorable.
Welcoming the spring season and what it comes with is not taken lightly, especially in a country where celebrations are part and parcel of culture. On that note, Lesotho for the second time, was promised an experience of the Spring Jump off- which is one of the remarkable events in the neighboring country, and unites people from different countries, join in the celebration and have fun together with an incredible lineup of both local and international entertainment.
Spring Jump Off event is a brain child of South Africa’s renowned Mahoota vs Vetkook who have been in the music industry for years. Spring Jump off, which has been running for over 10 years gives platform to artists from different genres and different walks of life, even upcoming ones, to showcase their talent, network and make collaborations which best suit their style, liking and have potential of harnessing their growth in the industry. The decision of bringing the similar experience to Lesotho was after realizing how much talent there is in the country and how some of it goes unnoticed.
Big events’ Kopano Alotse expressed they, as Lesotho event organizers, were really keen to work with Hootas Production after taking interest in their events over the years. They then approached the production for a working relationship as an idea of bringing the same, if not better entertainment experience to Lesotho. He explained this was before Covid-19 hit and when it did, the plan could not carry on.
The entertainment industry got a green light after the pandemic, they joined heads, had an agreement and Lesotho had its first Spring Jump off the previous year. “We had quite an amazing event which was accident free last year, with about 7000 to 8000 people who showed up. We are back and better this year and the plan is to hold this type of event for at least ten years”, he said.
Spring Jump off event this year is intended to take four days and is to take place from the first weekend of September. The first day will be comedy night with Sk’haftin at the forefront, the second will be the pre-party, and both events will be held at Cuban Linxs with free entrance. The day that follows will be for the main event which will take place at Manthabiseng Convention Center at 12 O’clock noon. Tickets for the main event will be for M150, and M100 for early birds. “We decided to host during the course of the day because we want to introduce to Basotho the idea of grooving during the day so that at night we pack up and go home.” Alotse further mentioned that the fourth day, which will be on Sunday, there will be a pool party at Avani Hotels and Resorts.
Mahoota stated that they are introducing a new culture of hosting events and are giving it a different touch. “The concept of this event is day time picnic and we are expecting people to show up early to enjoy good music, great company, food and drinks. We know this is possible because it was a success the previous year, around 3 O’clock noon the venue was already packed.
He revealed that in terms of performances, the event will present 80% local talent and 20% international. This is to ensure that Basotho artists get a chance to be noticed and are given a bigger platform to showcase their skills.
“We are looking forward to witnessing great collaborations which will best benefit the artists. We have made quite a few partnerships so far in support of the event and we are hoping more people or organizations will come on board, because we really need all the help we can get. We are not seeking handouts, we are presenting a big business opportunity to whoever is willing to listen and work with us. We promise whoever is willing to work with us, a return on their investments”, he said.
Alotse further explained that as a means of giving back to the community- which the event always aspire to do after reaching the ultimate goal of bringing entertainment, he echoed the promise already made- which was having CSI projects after the event, of which last year’s event was well kept. This is because there were three CSI projects carried out from the beginning of the year and there they distributed football kits to ten schools.
Regarding the sales of tickets, a representative of Inigma ticketbox, Mankone Mafa said there are multiple steams of purchasing tickets; be it on digital platforms as a means of avoiding long queues. On digital platforms there will however be a number of tickets for different events displayed on the ticket box website and online platform. When one checks out, there will be numerous ways of buying and a few minutes after making a payment, they will receive their digital ticket. The ticket then has to be saved until the event where it will be scanned and used for entrance. On that note, she warned those who are to buy digitally, to be careful because the digital tags have a barcode and if revealed in the splurge of excitement on either online posts or elsewhere, and screenshot by others, it is quite easy for another person to use that very tag for the event, resulting in trouble or no entry for the owner. On that note, she advised people to at least hide their references and barcode in case they cannot hold their excitement.
Unveiling the lineup, Mahoota declared that to hype the event up, there will be opening performances by Scorpion Kings- Kabza and Maphorisa, De Mthuda, Kwesta, Young Stunna, Emtee, DJ Stocki, Spikiri and many more. “We do not just want to focus on Amapiano lineup even though it is currently big. What we want to do is to cover as many genres as we can in order to accommodate everyone’s interests”, said Mahoota.