Britain's Got Talent

I’ve been seeing signs around town all week advertising the World Music Day on Saturday, June 20th. I’m not sure how global World Music Day is (I’m trying to remember if I’d heard of it before in the states? … ) but concerts were planned for every major city in Namibia, including three concerts in Windhoek. With no real plans for the day besides groceries and errands, I thought it’d be fun to attend the 5pm concert in Zoo Park (an outdoor amphitheater in the city centre) and the 9pm concert at Warehouse Theatre.

Turns out the 5pm concert actually took place at 1pm. Thank goodness for Shawn. The concert was advertised as beginning at 17:00h in both the city paper and on the posters plastered all over town. Thinking I had the whole afternoon to lounge, I was getting settled on one of the lounge chairs by the pool to read and soak up some sun in my increasingly pale skin, and Shawn called asking if I wanted to join him and the Brits for the concert. Though I was convinced he had the wrong time, one of his friends was performing within the hour so I agreed to tag along, thinking it must be a pre-concert act or something. Turns out Zoo Park doesn’t have lights, so it’d be impossible to have any sort of concert there in the evening. So why was the show advertised at 5pm everywhere??

Last week someone asked me if I’d had a TIA (This is Africa) moment yet. Confused at first, I think I get it now. I’m pretty sure I had my first real TIA moment Sat. afternoon.

At any rate, the concert line-up was fantastic and it was a gorgeous day to sit outside. There were maybe 20 groups, mostly hip-hop, with a one jam band, one reggae group, and one gospel hip-hop fusion group. Each group only performed two or three songs and the variety kept things exciting.

Most groups had back-up dancers, which was really fun to watch. Shawn’s friend is a solo performer, and since he didn’t have any back-up dancers, Shawn dared us all go on stage and dance for the second song of his set. I told him he was crazy. We already stood out like sore thumbs, besides the German group sitting nearby and two people at the other side of the amphitheatre, we were the only white people out of the several hundred in the crowd. The Brits, on the other hand, were up for the challenge and when the second song started, they stormed the stage and started dancing. And by dancing, I mean shoes off, fists pumping, butts shaking, bodies dropping to the ground. It was crazy. They definitely held their own and the crowd went nuts! By far the highlight of the afternoon.