Nthatuoa Koeshe
THE African Picnic and Camping (APICA) festival at Ramabanta Trading Post from 6 to 8 March 2020 lived up to its billing with scintillating performances by the various artistes on show.
As has become the norm, one of the major highlights was Tšepo Tshola aka The Village Pope keeping his audience singing along to his tracks like Shine Your Light, Time/It’s a Miracle and Ho lokile.
The Econet Telecom Lesotho sponsored event was also graced by South African group Trompies who took the revelers down memory lane with tracks like Sweety Lavo and Malibuseng.
The youths were also catered for with performances by Akanamali hit-maker Samthing Soweto who had his audience growing to tracks like Ama Dm, Lotto and Akulale.
Other artistes who performed at the third edition are Maleh, Megahertz, DJ Tseko, Dastarr, Nine24, DJ Bath Junior, Mekonko, Tedoz, Snat and DonnyB.
Organiser of the festival, Montoeli ‘Moleli, told the Weekender on the sidelines of the festival that they were happy with the growth that the event has shown.
“We have seen growth with every edition and we hope this trend continues because we want to grow the event to greater heights,” Montoeli said.
In line with the growth, Montoeli hopes to bring more artistes for future events. He said unlike in the past when they only held one edition annually, they are now working to ensure that they hold multiple events annually at different tourist resorts.
“Basotho do not like touring their own country so we are doing this to promote domestic tourism.
“APICA aims to expose the beauty of the African continent by allowing people to get in touch with nature as we host editions in different parts of Africa, with South Africa, Botswana and eSwatini on the list before expanding to the rest of the continent.”
He said taking the event to the rest of the continent would see an influx of tourists into the country.
