The Eastern Cape will host its first three-day jazz festival in East London later this year at the Abbotsford Christian Centre.
This will be the first of what is hoped will hopefully become an annual festival aimed at embracing and reviving jazz culture in the province.
Festival founder and director of T Mlitha Events Group, Mlindi Ntloko, said he wants to give the people of the Eastern Cape the show of a lifetime.
“We will kickstart the first day of the festival with a memorial lecture at the East London City Hall and on Saturday, the main event will take place. On Sunday we will host a golf day at the East London Golf Club,” Ntloko said.
“This concept came about three years ago. I have always attended events like the Cape Town Jazz Festival as well as the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz and realised that Eastern Cape jazz lovers were being starved of a fashionable and pure jazz event that upholds the standards of these national events,” he said.
The Eastern Cape musicians at the event will include Lulama Gawulana, Dumza Maswana and Retsi Pule.
“Maswasna and Pule are the ambassadors of the festivals. The reason we have two ambassadors is that they both represent different generations of music,” said Ntloko.
A media briefing will be held on Friday at The Square in the East London CBD.
“This media briefing is going be an event on its own, as there will be performances and we want five local artists to submit on our social media platforms, as we want them to showcase their talents at the festival in September.
“We are leaving a legacy behind, we are embracing music that is produced here in the province. “There will be six national artists and five local artists, which will be announced on Friday at the launch,” Ntloko said.
