Brand Kenya Board in partnership with Trace Events has launched the Made in Kenya Festival 2019. The 3 day annual cultural extravaganza is inspired by the need to provide a platform where Kenyans can appreciate and celebrate their own unique products, talent, and cuisine in its entire diversity and splendor.
The event purposes to reinforce the “Buy Kenya, Build Kenya Agenda”, which is aimed at inculcating in the mind of all Kenyan citizens, patriotism and preference for Kenyan goods and services as a means of supporting the domestic economy. The inaugural event shall be held on 5th, 6th and 7th April, 2019 in Nairobi. It is envisioned that as the festival grows, we shall share these experiences across other regions and counties of Kenya.
Speaking at the launch event, the Brand Kenya AgCEO Floice Mukabana said, “We believe that music; art, food and sport go a long way in shaping our brand values and provide a mirror to the soul of the nation. Concurrently running within the festival therefore shall be a “Made In Kenya exhibition” and sale where producers of products that are Made in Kenya can run a “Black Friday type” Sales Promotions and do business with consumers at the festival.”
The Made In Kenya Festival is the beginning of a conversation amongst Kenyans about their music, art, food, sport and products and how these emotional and functional aspects of Kenya fuse to deliver the soul of the country. It is a conscious call for all citizens to rally behind Kenya in all its offerings and deliver to the world a Kenya that is not just good for business but great to its citizens.
“Indeed we are proud to partner with Brand Kenya in this long walk to finding the soul of our country to weaving it into profit for Kenyan businesses. Trace brings global experiences in delivering great experiential events and a global platform that exposes Kenya’s music, art and culture to the world. Great country brands have been built and shared their values through music videos that capture art, dance, fashion, culture to name a few. Kenya is no exception. We must therefore seize this opportunity to first love what is “Made In Kenya” then share that love to a global platform,” said Trace East Africa CEO Steve Agutu.
Nominations
Musician recruitment
The recruitment for musicians to play at the event shall begin immediately after the launch. Part of the objective of the launch is to bring to the public domain the modalities for nomination of artists.
The nomination process shall be via the event website. A button on the landing page of www.madeinkenyafest.com shall lead citizens to fill a form nominating any artist of their choice in each of the categories or just in 1 or 2 categories.
After a 2 month nomination period, a shortlist of artists with the highest nominations shall be developed and subjected to an SMS vote.
The winning 5 artists in each category shall be the headline artists for the music category and shall be allotted play time based on the event concept.
Dance/ Street Artists/ Acrobats
This category of performances shall be recruited via video submissions. Each artist or group of artists intending to perform at the festival shall create a 3 minute video showcasing their talent and share the video with Trace. These videos will be uploaded on the social channels of both Made In Kenya Festival and Brand Kenya Board with a modality to vote which shall include, first liking the page then liking or loving the video. The videos with the most engagement shall be shortlisted for the SMS Vote to provide performances during the festival and according to the final event concept.
All negotiations with artists shall be done by Trace Events and the final artists for the event delivered to Brand Kenya.
Important Dates
Nominations: 20th November 2018 – 31st December 2018
SMS Voting: 7th January, 2019 – 8th March, 2019
Who can be nominated?
Kenyan artists based in Kenya and in the diaspora singing in vernacular Kenyan songs, secular artists and gospel artists. Should be Kenyan citizens and when in a group the lead singer must be a Kenyan citizen.
