Nairobi News

With music festivals back in full swing in Kenya, beer and Music lovers were in the last three days treated to one of Kenya’s biggest Oktobafest over the weekend.

More than 20,000 people travelled from far and wide for the event, which started on Friday and ended on Sunday in Nairobi.

The majority of the revellers had to stay in traffic for almost three hours to get to the venue, but it was worth the wait.

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Kenya Breweries Limited (KBL), who were the organisers of the event, said thousands of people attended the event but by the time of going to press, they were yet to release the numbers of those who attended.

“It’s a really, really good party atmosphere. The ages of attendees range from 18 to people in their 40’s, it’s a really diverse audience,” said Ms Jean Okech, Marketing Manager Tusker.

According to Ms Okech, they wanted to bring vibrant to the youth and showcase their brand.

“Tusker is proudly Kenyan and how can we show support to our very own?” she posed.

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The festival at Ngong Racecourse, Nairobi, taunted itself as Kenya’s premier beer festival and marked the crescendo of the Tusker brand’s 100th-anniversary celebration.

The festival mirrored the first edition which was held in 2019 and featured more than 100 Kenyan acts on 3 different stages at the expansive venue.

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According to KBL the festival debited to give Kenyan artists from a diverse range of genres – traditional folk, Afro-fusion, niche electronic subgenres like Mejja, Nadia, Khaligraph who is a contemporary hip hop star to spat in the vernacular tongue, and on Saturday he brought the crowd down, at a platform where they performed their art to a large, primarily Kenyan audience.

The event brought thousands of Kenyans to the cold and windy Ngong Racecourse, thus generating much-needed revenue for the local economy while also creating employment and propping a major and much-needed boost to the creative sector in Kenya simultaneously.

During his performance, Brian Ouko Omollo, popularly known by his stage name Khaligraph Jones and often referred to as Papa Jones, paused his music and asked the crowd why people always say that Kenya Music is not worth listening to.

“While his dancers were holding a Kenyan flag, he asked, why do some people say that Kenyans do not love Kenyan music?”

The crown in harmony started shouting his song ‘Kwendaa’, where he tells those who don’t want to listen to his music or Kenyan music to take off.

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Top Kenyan superstars who performed at the event included Nyashinski, Khaligraph Jones, Mejja, Nadia Mukami, Chris Kaiga, Ndovu Kuu, Fena Gitu, Arrowbwoy, Femi One, Buruklyn Boyz, Savara, Bensoul, Maandy, Nviiri the Storyteller, Ayrosh, Ssaru and many more.

Top mix masters Dj Joe Mfalme, Dj Protege, Dj Grauchi, Suraj and many more also entertained the revellers.

In keeping with its festival status, the Tusker Oktobafest 2022 also featured much more than beer and music.

There Nexters eSports area, where festival goers were able to go head-to-head with the Nexters winners in an eSports as well as celebrities and influencers, individual and group games, and much more.

EABL Marketing & Innovation Director Anne-Joy Michira, said that through the event, they celebrated “our great Kenyan vibe and twist by promoting our local artists, DJs, and MCs. We, therefore, invite all our consumers to enjoy the greatest beer celebration this October.”

And to keep the party mood going, giant screens were mounted at the venue for the hundreds of fans not to miss out on their English Premier League favorite matches and Formula 1 as they sampled the brews.

Traditionally, Oktoberfest is the world’s largest beer festival and travelling fun fair hosted every year from mid or late September extending to the last weekend of October.

The festival is a very important part of the Bavarian culture which has been held since 1810. Other cities worldwide started holding Octoberfest after the original Munich event.

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