The 2024 edition of the Stanbic Bank Jacaranda Music Festival (SJMF) will be hosted at a new location from October 4 to 6, organisers have announced.
SJMF creative director Walter Wanyanya told attendees during the official launch of the festival on Tuesday that Thornpark Polo Club, located a few kilometres from Marlborough Police Station, will be the new home for the annual music event.
“Every three years we relocate to a new location; so it was time for us to move and find a new home. But also, the festival has grown, so we needed more space. We needed more real estate for us to be able to accommodate more people,” Wanyanya said.
The multi-day music fiesta was launched at Hellenic Sports Club in 2019 and has been housed at Old Hararians Sports Club for the past three years.
Among the artists who are billed to perform are Backtrack Vocals, an internationally-touring acapella group from New York City as well as Spanish DJ, Idoipe-Cuervo Lento, who blends his background as a musician and electronic influences with love for Aragon, an autonomous community in northeastern Spain where he was born.
South African artists, including rapper and songwriter Cassper Nyovest, powerful vocalist Nomfusi, house music trio Micasa, and DJs Dlala Thukzin and Felo Le Tee, are also part of the line-up.
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Daniel Deuschle, a versatile Texas-based artist from Harare, will join the globetrotting Afro-fusion outfit Mokoomba, who are currently on a summer tour in the United States. Other artists are Silent Nqo, Bulawayo-born Zambian artist James Sakala, Mary Anibal, Mbeu, Travellers Band, Reverb 7, Master H, Freeman & HKD band, DJ Spunj, Ace Frvr, Jose Sax, Shaku Chante, St Emmo, Nutty O, Rax the Dj, Aga Nyabinde, Sky Root, Feli Nandi and artists from the Scripts and Bars initiative.
A few more artists will be announced in due course.
“We are excited to see the international acclamation that it (festival) will get,” Napoleon Nyanhi, the executive director of the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ) said.
Permanent secretary in the Sports, Arts and Culture ministry Nicholas Moyo was also in attendance and was joined by festival partners, sponsors, artists and members of the creative and cultural industry.
Starting as a one-day event eight years ago, the festival has grown into a five-day experience, with two days dedicated to education workshops that have panel discussions and symposiums featuring guest speakers from Zimbabwe and abroad.
Title sponsor, Stanbic Bank, started partnering with Ngomanehosho in 2021.
Last year, the bank took a significant step to empower local musicians, through workshops designed to build their capacities.
Stanbic Bank head of business and commercial banking Partson Mahachi said that this year they will continue with the initiative through a two-day workshop whose aim will be to conscientise musicians and other creative artists on how to achieve financial returns and benefits from their clients.
Moyo said the government’s major thrust is finding ways to partner with festivals like the SJMF to build a formidable industry, “an industry that is going to take care of its players now and in the future”.