Nostalgic night as Fiesta goes to Dodoma

Dodoma. Tanzania’s capital town, Dodoma and its environs is usually a quiet place save for the days when parliament is in session but this was not the case on Friday night as the town came to life buzzing with activity.

This was after the Tigo Fiesta extravaganza made a stop in the capital drawing a mammoth audience that included several members of parliament who are already there for the next session of parliament.

Featuring a rich array of Bongo Flava artistes the several thousands in attendance were treated to a rich mix as they got of the feel of the annual extravaganza feel.

Partying into the AM on Saturday at Jamhuri Stadium, the attending MPs were spoilt for choice from starlet Nandy to the seductive AliKiba whose hit single Seduce Me has been quite a hit since it was launched two months ago.

It was, however, the Dodoma born Ben Pol who emerged as the toast of the night getting legislators on their feet with his rendition of Remy Ongala’s golden hit ‘Narudi Nyumbani’.

They joined him on stage as they danced to the song that is in line with the government’s drive to move its administrative offices to Dodoma a move that had stalled for close to four decades.

Revellers were then thrown into frenzy when the singer introduced stand-up comedian Ebitooke to the audience, this comes after rumours that the two have been dating for quite a while now.

But it was not Ben Paul who was doing nostalgic hits that set the audience down the memory lane, on that night Weusi had a thing up their sleeves as they brought Nguza Viking and Papi Kocha to life with their rap remix of hit single ‘Seya’.

‘Seduce Me’ by AliKiba continued to be a crowd favourite as he was forced to do it all over after he had bade them farewell, they wanted some more.

With 13 regions already covered with the Tigo Fiesta which is set to reach its climax later on this month, the extravaganza today heads to Morogoro with the same line-up of artistes who were in Dodoma on Friday Night.

The festival has so far been to Arusha, Musoma, Kahama, Tabora, Mwanza, Kigoma, Sumbawanga, Mbeya, Songea, Moshi, Tanga, Iringa and Njombe.

This year’s trail has been themed Tumekusoma with a specific dedication to local artistes as opposed to the past where foreign artistes were invited to perform at some of the shows especially the launch and the finale.