While revellers look forward to enjoying East London’s biggest musical event of the year, artists are preparing to give their best performances at the Buyel’Ekhaya Pan African festival at the weekend.
With an impressive lineup of talented musicians, this year’s Buyel’Ekhaya will see artists such as Port Elizabeth-born Moonchild Sanelly and Vusi Nova, Mthatha’s Busiswa, and KwaZulu-Natal-born Shekhinah make their way to the city.
Chatting to the Daily Dispatch, the flamboyant Moonchild Sanelly promised a fun and uniquely energetic experience for her fans in her home province.
“I love performing in East London. The crowd always sings along to my songs. I’m really excited to be back,” said Sanelly, whose signature blue hair and anything-but-boring persona will definitely turn heads.
Dubbing her musical genre as future ghetto funk, Moonchild Sanelly has been a hit-maker in the music industry for 12 years, giving fans favourites such as Dance Like a Girl, Cut the Cake, Rabubi and more recently, Weh Mameh.
“The crowd can expect a lot of energy and freedom from me. Being up on stage is a place where you can forget all your problems, move your body and just have a lot of fun, at least that is what it is like for me.”
Equally as excited to be performing at “home” is singer, songwriter and poet Busiswa, who has been hard at work rehearsing with her team to give Buyel’Ekhaya audiences a taste of her newest album, Summer Life.
“I’ve performed in East London many times. I lived here for five years so it’s like a hometown for me, but Buyel’Ekhaya is always special because it draws the largest crowd of the whole year and also draws in people from the surrounding towns,” said Busiswa, who has been part of the dance and gqom music scene for six years and hopes to keep South Africa dancing for many more to come.
“I hope the crowd really experiences what Summer Life is all about and why I released an album especially for the festive season.”
Taking to the East London stage with her band for the first time – and at her first Buyel’Ekhaya festival – is Shekinah, who will do songs from her 2017 debut album, Rose Gold.
“It’ll be my first time performing in East London since 2014 and I’m really excited to finally give East London some of Rose Gold,” said Shekinah.
The festival takes place on Sunday at the Buffalo Park Cricket Stadium.Tickets cost R250 from Checkers, Shoprite and Computicket. Gates open at 10am...