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Talent Gore Arts Correspondent
It is a few days to go before the ultimate musical showcase in Harare roars to life.

Slated for Hellenic Sports Club from October 4 to 5, the second edition of the Jacaranda Music Festival will this year have an interesting collaborative segment, which will feature some of Zimbabwe’s top voices in the urban music space.

Dubbed “Houz of Gruvz” the session slotted for the first night of the festival will be headlined by Roki and Ishan. After his emotionally laden performance at the Patoranking gig earlier this year, Ishan has not yet featured at any big events and fans have been longing to see the lad holding the song of the year crown in action.

Roki is a special factor as he has been threatening to bounce back onto the scene the whole year by releasing a couple of singles but to no avail. Could this platform be the springboard he has been waiting for to re-launch his career?

This year’s edition of the Jacaranda Music Festival has grown to two days from the one day last year. This is due to overwhelming response after a successful inaugural jubilee, which saw around 6 000 music lovers attend.

Friday the 4th of October will be the festival’s opening night, and there is a special concert lined up to officially open the event.

“Houz of Gruv is a tribute to the urban grooves genre, which remains an important, home-grown genre that has created a number of stars and at its peak, took Zimbabwean audiences by storm and laid a strong foundation for the support of local music in general,” said festival director, Marcus Gora.

Other acts billed to perform during the Houz of Gruvz session are Mafriq, Kelvin Vito, and Masa Caroleen.

“The Houz of Gruv band is directed by Mokoomba star lead guitarist, Trust Samende. He brings together a group of talented musicians to play a series of urban grooves classics and capture its evolution from its beginning to the biggest hits on local radio and YouTube today,” added Gora.

Other acts will be headliners Ammara Brown and Black Motion from South Africa,  Transit Crew, Sylent Nqo, Bryan K, DJ Chucknosis and Music According to Percussion.