by Thando Mgobhozi
Her Majesty, the queen, and the talented musician Shekhinah brought back her very own music festival as her first tour in honor of women’s day 2019. The festival celebrates womanhood and is all about bringing women together and had a line up that consisted of women only. The line up included Simmy, Sho Madjozi, Busiswa, Rowlene, Dj DooWap, Moonchild, Holly Rey, Dj Zinhle and Melo B Jones. The hosts of the day were television personalities Nomalanga Shozi and Kim Jayde. People came out in numbers at the Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg South to be part of this historic day and event.
Shekhinah Thandi Donnell is only 24 years of age but has already made her mark in the music industry with popular hit singles such as Back to the Beach featuring Kyle Deutsch and Let you know with Sketchy Bongo. She released her debut album Rose Gold on October 6, 2017. The album was later certified platinum on August 31, 2018, and not only does this festival celebrate the power that women have in the music industry but celebrates the success of her album.
The Nasrec Expo Centre was the perfect venue to host this music festival as the Centre offers over 42 000 square meters of covered space and 80 000 square meters of outdoor space so you can imagine how many people this venue can carry which is perfect for a music festival of this nature. The Centre hosts a lot of different exhibitions and parties every year and anyone is allowed to book the place for any event that they would like to host. The weather was perfect and the sun was out to play, the venue was beautifully decorated with touches of roses all around as part of the theme and had different types of photo booths that were Instagram worthy meaning the girls were ready to snap photos all day long.
The festival was sponsored by Nedbank in association with MTV Base and East Coast radio station 947. Food and alcohol beverages were not allowed inside the venue but there were many food stalls inside offering a variety of meals. Corona Extra the beer brand was also there as a partner and had a mini bar of its own which was convenient so after having your burger from Spur you could just down your meal with a corona extra if you’re a beer lover of course.
The stage was huge and had a full live band. One of the performances that stood out the most for me was that of Moonchild. She was full of energy and kept the crowd drawn to her. She was having so much fun that she got off stage just to walk alongside the crowd when she performed nay’ le walk and forgot that she had to return back to the stage.
Let’s not get started on fashion. Everyone was all dressed up and everything was so colorful. Playing dress-up to go to an event of such a caliber is something I enjoy experiencing and seeing people express themselves through what they wear is always exciting to witness. The nice thing also about the venue is that it is an open space so people brought blankets to make picnics and have a sit down while enjoying the view and taking in the performances. It was definitely one of those festivals where you could bring your whole family and little ones, your partner and your turn up the gang.
Shekhinah describes RoseFest as one of the craziest things she’s ever done. She performed right at the end as the closing act which was appropriate as the show was hers. She performed whipped amongst other songs from her album. If you missed out on the first tour of the RoseFest don’t worry because you can still catch the second leg of the tour in Durban October, 12.
