CENTRESTAGE: Blankets vs Koroga

In what can only be summarised as a spectacular comeback, the Blankets & Wine festival made its return to Nairobi’s social calendar in a highly anticipated event at the Ngong Racecourse last weekend. Without a doubt, the highlight of B&W’s first 2016 edition was the performance by American rapper turned singer Aloe Blacc, whose charming delivery proved quite the befitting return gift for the 3,000 strong attendees.

But away from Aloe’s much talked about performance, this was a symbolic event for Blankets & Wine founder Muthoni Ndonga. Of particular interest was the controversy that surfaced in the buildup to the event, as online reports attributed B&W’s year-long absence to alleged sabotage by Muthoni’s former partners turned competitors, Capital FM.

“Those were pure lies,” says Capitals FM’s head of marketing Michael Waithaka, who leads the team behind B&W’s rival event, Koroga Festival. “If those bloggers would have bothered to check with us, we would have told them that Muthoni is actually the one who terminated her contract with us and not the other way round.”

According to Muthoni, the move was informed by a burning desire to reinvent the Blankets & Wine platform after over five years of hosting local and regional musicians on a monthly basis.

NEW FORMAT

“The break was necessary because we had felt it was starting to get static and it was time to refresh and reinvigorate the idea of what Blankets & Wine stood for and how it’s presented,” she explains. “That’s what made this event extra special. We had been away for a year and just like everyone else, we were eager to see Blankets back in its current version.”

So is there any truth in the claims of her former radio partner’s intentions to “destroy” the original Blankets & Wine concept?

“To be totally honest, it’s an unnecessary statement. It’s like comparing a potato to a cabbage. They’re both vegetables but they’re not even in the same family,” says the Drummer Queen. “The bigger picture for me lies in the purity of the intention. The fact that this event was borne out of my personal experiences as an artiste will always make it different from any other music event in Nairobi.”

For Waithaka: It’s all just a case of over-the-top speculation from poorly informed commentators. “An event is an event,” he states.

But is it? From its inception, Blankets & Wine was positioned as a platform through which emerging live musicians could showcase their alternative music genres to a niche audience.

Over the years, the event developed into a “multi-disciplinary platform for creative expression” before rebranding into its present format. So what exactly is the big idea around Blankets & Wine?

“Blankets belongs to the artistes,” she argues. “We are here for the creatives and we curate them from a variety of disciplines to enable them complement each other within this space that we have created. In this way, Blankets is a continuous experiment because each event is different from the next one.”

On the other hand, Koroga Festival describes itself as a “bi-monthly music and arts festival celebrating the greatest African acts from around the continent, food and culture. Past editions have featured cross-generational African music icons like Koffi Olomide and Ali Kiba, with the upcoming edition scheduled for May 8 set to host international jazz legend Manu Dibango.

BREAKING BARRIERS

“Koroga is one of many platforms that we have developed,” says Waithaka. “The idea behind it is to serve what’s best in or from Africa across music, food and lifestyle. Our other properties like Lounge Unplugged cater to different audiences and preferences.”

For Muthoni, the apparent similarities between B&W and Koroga Festival only go as far as the music.

“Blankets is about breaking barriers,” she says. “It’s about pushing the boundaries of expression in a manner that resonates with a global identity in the same way that Lupita Nyong’o or M-Pesa are uniquely Kenyan yet globally identifiable brands.”

Ultimately, the biggest gainer in what, it appears, will end up being an endless battle for relevance and prominence is the audience. In their respective ways, both platforms have played a significant role in stimulating Nairobi’s social scene and continue to add to the city’s variety of entertainment and lifestyle offerings while enabling the growth of local talent and creative enterprises. With the next edition of B&W slated for June, approximately a month after Koroga’s, there now is variety for the average music lover to choose from where options were so limited before. As it would seem, in the end, only the art wins.