Stonebwoy & Black Sherif to headline first Rolling Cocoa Festival
The first edition of the Rolling Cocoa Festival has been scheduled to include Ghanaian music stars, Stonebwoy and Black Sherif as its headliners. The event will take place at The Anthem in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, March 9, 2024.
The new indoor world music festival has declared that the Ghanaian music and culture will be reserved as its main focus. Organised by Duke Concept, many of Ghana’s most popular musicians will perform at the music festival.
The list of other scheduled performers includes R2bees, Efya, Kwesi Arthur, Camidoh, S3fa, and KiDi. Incredible Zigi will choreograph the performance, and Kwasi Beast and Kappacinco will serve as hosts.
Based in New York, USA, Duke Concept is an event production and management firm. According to the company, they provide a wide range of services, such as organising events, concerts, managing artists, representing them, pageantry, festivals, carnivals, trade exhibits, and tours.
In a statement from Duke Concept, Rolling Cocoa’s debut aims at bringing Ghana to Washington, D.C., giving festival attendees a chance to connect musically with the spirit of their Ghanaian roots. Beyond just a concert, the occasion will celebrate Ghanaian culture and promote solidarity among attendees.
“We are thrilled to bring the spirit of Ghana to the heart of D.C. through Rolling Cocoa. This event goes beyond being a mere concert,” said Duke Concept CEO Osita “Duke” Ugeh in a press release last year.
“It embodies a celebration of Ghanaian culture, a night fostering unity, offering festival goers an opportunity to resonate with the essence of Ghanaian heritage through music,” he added.
Although Duke thinks Ghanaian music is “very authentic,” he also feels that there isn’t a platform that has been provided for them to present this authentic Ghanaian music to the world.
“Ghana still has unadulterated African music sound. Those who are doing highlife are still doing highlife, it’s not hip-hop highlife, its highlife. Does that make sense? Also, those who are doing reggae, because reggae connects to Africa much more, from back in the day, from early Jamaica. So, the likes of Stonebwoy still sing in ‘patoa. Knowing that, I’ve always wanted to build an opportunity to showcase the beauty of Ghanaian music'” said Duke to the TheAfricanDream.net in a conversation.
“My Ghanaian friends who are close to me know that. I used to jokingly say, although I was serious that when I have a record label, one of my first artists would be Ghanaian,” he added.
Duke’s vision for the festival is to export the best of African entertainment to the rest of the world by redefining it to meet top standards. Although he acknowledges that both Ghanaian and Nigerian music are excellent, he maintains that Nigerian music has always had more popularity and purchasing power. He believes it is important to expose more Ghanaians to that buying power.
“I always say that Nigeria has good music but what sells Nigeria is not just the music, it’s the business. The Ghanaian music industry needs to do more in understanding the music business. But Ghana is still a growing country when it comes to music,” said Duke to TheAfricanDream.net in a concluding statement.
“We have the talent, but there’s a still a lot of learning to do in the music business. But we’ll get there. Opportunities like this puts them on the world stage for this kind of conversation to start happening.” Tickets for the festival are on sale HERE
Source: TheAfricanDream.net
Oral Ofori is Founder and Publisher at www.TheAfricanDream.net, a digital storyteller and producer, and also an information and research consultant.
