BOMU awards come early

Botswana Musicians Union (BOMU) publicity secretary, Pagson Ntsie, recently revealed that the dates for the annual BOMU awards have been changed from the usual December date to the 24th of October at the Gaborone International Convention Centre. “We decided to change the dates because we do not attract as many people as we would like because December is a holiday month. Another reason is that the festive season is a busy month for artists. In the previous awards, turnout was low, so for the seventh installment of the awards we decided to change to a less hectic month, October,” explained Ntsie.

 
Ntsie urged artists to ready their works for submission. “This year we want to see artists from outside of Gaborone participating. We have realised that they have not been getting the right message about the awards. Some thought they were meant for specific artists and that they were complex to enter. As coordinators of the Presidents Day Competitions, we meet a lot of artists from outside Gaborone and they have shown interest. Right now we have more than 2000 registered BOMU members as opposed to last year’s 1300 and we urge all those who could not meet last year’s deadline to take advantage of this once in a life time opportunity,” said Ntsie.

 
On what people should expect, Ntsie said a varied lineup of performers will be put together to avoid the monotony of engaging the same performers every year. He said they already have a floor plan of  the stage. He said this year they will stream the show live on Btv.

 
Ntsie added that he would like to see fashion take centre stage at this year’s awards and urged artists and revelers to design captivating outfits.