Zimpapers Logo

Kundai Marunya Arts Correspondent
The country’s biggest urban culture festival, Shoko will kick off this morning with a series of workshops at Harare City Library.

Dubbed Hub Unconference, the all-day new media workshops will have several guest speakers from respected media houses including Aljazeera’s Raheela Mahomed and Facebook’s Lauretta Mtomela among others.

The main attraction of the day, and the only paid event at this year’s festival, the Comedy Night will also be on tomorrow evening at Reps Theatre. It features a rich line-up headlined by South Africa-based Farhan Esat and hosted by Cde Fatso. Other comedians to perform are Michael K, Maforty, King Kandoro and Tinaye.

The comedy extravaganza will give audiences a space to laugh at the crazy events of the last year in Zimbabwe as comedians poke fun at politics, society and recent national events. The Hub Unconference will also spill into Saturday were more speakers will present on different topics while media start-ups will also be competing for $8000 worth of prizes at the Hub Awards. Also on Saturday is a new addition to the festival, the Mash Up nights, where artists from different genres will stage collaborative performances.

“We thought of presenting something different to the Zimbabwean audience, bringing together different genres thus electronic music fusing with traditional Zimbabwean gospel music, mapostori collaborating with hip hop musicians,” said festival director Samm Monro aka Cde Fatso. ZCC Mbungwe Stars will collaborate with hip hop star T Shoc, Vabati Vajehova will perform with DJ Zyon Black while Tamy Moyo will collaborate with Norwegian hip hop act Awesomnia.

“Awesomnia is already in the country rehearsing with Tamy ahead of Saturday performance,” said Cde Fatso.

The festival’s headline act, South Africa’s Moonchild Sanelly, will jet in tomorrow  to make an appearance at the Mash Up nights ahead of the Peace In The Hood concert in Unit L, Chitungwiza. On Sunday, the festival hosts the second Hip Hop Summit with a wide range of speakers presenting on different subjects aimed at growing local hip hop.

This is before music lovers are treated to the Peace In The Hood concert in Chitungwiza where Moonchild is expected to share stage with hip hop man of the moment Asaph, and other local artists including Guspy Warrior, Ricky Fire and Dadza D. Shoko has over the years grown to be one of the biggest festivals in Zimbabwe hosting thousands of revellers.