Lauded by CNN as one of the “7 African music festivals you really have to see”, and most recently named as BBC’s Top African Festival, MTN Bushfire is Swaziland’s internationally acclaimed music & arts festival that celebrates creative expression whilst promoting social responsibility, stimulating the economy and drawing talent and tourists from across Africa and around the world.

Each year a multi-generational global community of more than 20,000 “BRING THEIR FIRE” to the scenic farmlands of the Malkerns Valley to experience the three-day event.

Whilst MTN Bushfire is most well-known as Southern Africa’s most diverse and inclusive world music festival that has always featured artists from over a dozen countries,  it is also an arts & culture festival.  The event includes contemporary and traditional visual and performing arts, cultural activities including a compelling line-up of theatre, poetry, dance, art exhibits & installations, story-telling, puppetry, film, as well as themed workshops and design installations – making it a sensory explosion of fun and  activity for the whole family.

To round out the MTN entertainment experience, the festival also boasts a fresh & healthy craft food market, a regional design and hand-made speciality goods market, as well as family-friendly camping, performances & the KidZone.

Over the past decade, MTN Bushfire has continually brought its fire with a significant percentage of profits supporting local charities including Young Heroes, an initiative that supports over 1,000 AIDS orphans.  With its extensive schools and artist outreach into Swaziland and a focus on local participation, MTN BUSHFIRE serves, in the words of one journalist, “as a living, breathing, creative ecosystem.”

The festival has achieved a worldwide reputation for its visionary approach, authenticity and call to action for creating awareness of the need for social change.

MTN Bushfire is a celebration of the human spirit and the joy of creative expression that seeks to encourage everyone to contribute and engage.

Acts already announced by MTN Bushfire include Mali’s internationally acclaimed world-music stars Songhoy Blues whose debut album has been described by top music magazine NME as “a masterpiece of desert blues, blending American guitar licks with Malian grooves,” Mafikizolo, whose 2014 comeback made waves across South Africa and beyond, Pablo Nouvelle, a filmmaker and musician from Switzerland who takes soul “back to the future” with a combination of new sounds and old samples, and Living Room – made up of Manu Delago, an Austrian percussionist and composer, best known as Bjork’s hang drummer and saxophonist and clarinet player Pepe Auer.

South African artists also confirmed include cutting-edge acts such as Native Young, Nomadic Orchestra, Felix Laband, and Toby2Shoes with acts from Swaziland including Bholoja, Nomzamo Zaza Dlamini & Fanaza.

MTN Bushfire is proud to announce the next batch of additions to this already globally representative line up with artists from a far afield as Canada and New Zealand.  Confirmed for the MTN Bushfire main stage is Estère, whose mixture of bass, synth, drums, guitar, vocal harmonies, keyboard, whistles, claps, kazoo, desk tapping has been dubbed Electric Blue Witch Hop. Hailing from New Zealand, Estère has performed at festivals across the globe and opened for artists including Erykah Badu, Morcheeba, Baths, Ikonika and KT Tunstal. In fact, Acclaim Magazine describes her as having a “velvet smooth voice that has already drawn comparisons with Erykah Badu with the charm of Lianne La Havas.”

Also confirmed for the 2016 lineup is 27-year-old Canadian singer Cold Specks whose 2012 debut album, ‘I Predict a Graceful Expulsion!’ was hailed as a masterful and wholly original debut, and was shortlisted for a Juno award and Polaris Prize.  In a style described as “doom-soul” Cold Specks has worked on Moby’s album ‘Innocents’ and was invited to play with Joni Mitchell at the singer’s 70th birthday, alongside the likes of Herbie Hancock.

 

Another exciting announcement is the confirmation of South Africa ska legends The Rudimentals. Setting the standard for ska/ reggae / African beats in Southern Africa for over 14 years, The Rudimentals’ 13 piece line-up includes; a three-piece brass section with a trombonist, trumpet and saxophonist; a five-piece vocal section with two international male fashion model MC’s from New York and Jamaica, a Zimbabwean-born ‘toasting’ MC and a rotating roster of up-and-coming backing vocalists; a keyboard player; an electronic and beats synth-player; a drummer first blooded in the metal scene; a bass player and guitar player. 


Tickets on Sale Now – Book Early to Avoid Disappointment

With tickets for MTN Bushfire in 2015 selling out before the event even started, fans are urged to secure tickets early. MTN Bushfire pre-sale tickets are on sale now via the MTN Bushfire website and Facebook page.

 

 

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