GIMC 2020 line up revealed
Considered one of the must attend musical experiences in the country, The Gaborone International Music and Culture Week (GIMC) 2020 is once again upon us.
This week Voice Entertainment caught up with the man behind the brand, Thapelo ‘Fish” Pabalinga for an insight into the preparations of the big show!
GIMC week will officially kick start on Friday 28th August and will go on for the rest of the week until the main attraction on Saturday 5th dubbed the GIMC music festival.
The GIMC will once again include eight shows at eight different venues, something which will cost the organisers P4.2 million.
In an Exclusive interview with Pabalinga who will today (Friday) represent Botswana at the prestigious Maftwon heights creative community workshop hosted in Mahikeng – he reiterated that over the past seven years GIMC has injected about P11 million into the creative industry.
“The quickest way to create employment is through the creative industry. I cannot stress how much the creative industry has potential to turn around the economy,” Pabalinga said.
“The other thing that we pride ourselves in is that we have been in the past able to create the linkage between local artists and other events outside the country. We have been able to slot local acts in those events through the network we have been able to create with other events,” Pabalinga added.
As per GIMC tradition, events for the week will kick off with the Fitness and Aerobics event, followed by the ever popular GIMC Jazz , fashionable GIMC Champagne picnic, GIMC poetry night, GIMC comedy night, GIMC theatre night, GIMC Clap n Tap and closing off the week with the GIMC music festival.
Pabalinga further added that this year they will engage a total of 60 performers, with 50 local slots and only 10 international artists.
Sharing the lineup which Pabalinga says will be completed by end of April, for the GIMC music festival will be South Africa’s Dj Maphorisa, Kabza da small, Sasha and Emtee Locally it will be Ban T, Veezo View and Ozi F Teddy just to mention a few.
For the Jazz event no international acts have been confirmed as yet with Pabalinga only sharing Amantle Brown, Mpho Sebina and Sereetsi and the Natives as the main acts of the night. Mophato dance crew is expected to be the main acts for the GIMC theatre night slated for September 1st.
“We try and grow the event every year with our limited budget, I mean being considered as one of the best events in the country we are dreaming of partnering with private entities so that we could even bring trending American artists to perform here in Botswana.”
“It is possible, we are a country rich with diamonds I don’t see anything hindering us from hosting such big acts, hopefully when we turn 10 years of age we will be able to achieve this or preferably even sooner,” Pabalinga further noted.
GIMC is on its seventh year since inception and continues to remain one of the most successful events in the country having gained international recognition after it was listed among the top 10 events to attend in Africa.