The third edition of the Nyege Nyege festival may have been its biggest edition yet. The turnout was huge on the first night and may have easily swelled by double on the second night.
The Nyege Nyege party crew from Nairobi began to pre-game for the festival that previous Saturday at the Akwaaba Nyege Nyege warm up party, where Bbrave, Jowaa, Suraj and Jinku joined by Moseh the Drummist gave us a preview of what to expect from them at the festival.
Bbrave at Akwaaba Warm up Party © 2017 Lizzie Farida
© 2017 Lizzie Farida
Suraj at Akwaaba Warm up Party © 2017 Lizzie Farida
Jinku at Akwaaba Warm up Party © 2017 Lizzie Farida
The pre-game didn’t stop there… Many of the Nairobi party goers travelled to the festival from Nairobi to Jinja in the Party busses organized by Nairobi Underground. The fun times and mini holiday began while waiting for the buses last Thursday night at the Alchemist to the smooth sounds of hip hop from Mix Master Lenny. The good vibes continued as we boarded the bus and by the time we arrived early on the first day of the festival the party was in full force.
We arrived at our hotel, got our bearings and jumped on boda bodas to the venue to commence three days of continuous dancing, drinking, diving under canopies to protect my camera from the downpour and dumping delicious Rolexes in my mouth.
© 2017 Lizzie Farida
© 2017 Lizzie Farida
The venue Nile Discover Beach Resort is gorgeous. It’s based right on the source of the river Nile, the huge venue offered camping sites with bathrooms and showers. Lounge areas that could be found all around when in need of a break. Romantic scenery by the river complete with romantic boat rides for the lovers.
There was music to suit everyone’s taste with stages such as the Reggae stage powered by Umojah sound system, the Eternal Disco stage, the Main stage that played a little of everything from all the other stages and a seemingly secret Chill stage that I (drunkenly) stumbled upon while exploring the venue.
© 2017 Lizzie Farida
The variety of music at Nyege Nyege Festival is what keeps it in the running to be one of the best Festivals in Africa. In three days I took an amazingly trippy underground music tour all around the world from Jamaica, to Germany, to France, to Portugal, to Italy, to China, a little stopover at Kenya, to Uganda, to Tanzania, west to Ghana, down to South Africa, and over to Mexico.
© 2017 Lizzie Farida
© 2017 Lizzie Farida
© 2017 Lizzie Farida
© 2017 Lizzie Farida
© 2017 Lizzie Farida
© 2017 Lizzie Farida
© 2017 Lizzie Farida
© 2017 Lizzie Farida
The Kenyan Acts came up and showed out at Nyege Nyege: Gregg Tendwa, Suraj, EA Wave, Dread Steppa, Dylan S, Abaki Simba Band and Eddie Grey all killed it while we soaked up the sounds and the mud.
© 2017 Lizzie Farida
© 2017 Lizzie Farida
© 2017 Lizzie Farida
The food was cheap and in plenty, I was subsisting on rolex which is a street food made out of egg and avocado wrapped in Chapati.The drinks are extremely cheap with a beer costing about 100 ksh. Uganda seduced me but it was only bound to be a short affair.
© 2017 Lizzie Farida
After three days it was time to come back refreshed, renewed and ready to take on the seemingly never ending political season in Kenya.
