Festival delights Meru residents

Kenya's top stars headlining the second edition of the Ameru Festival lit Meru town in what had been billed the ultimate Easter plan.

The festival that is a platform to showcase Meru people’s culture turned into contemporary exhibition of Kenya’s white-hot stars and top talents alongside the county's emerging acts who brought the town to a standstill.

Setting the tone for the evening was the perfect choreography of Nairobi’s FBI dancers dressed in black from head to toe whose high-energy synchronized moves then gave way to the star-studded lineup.

The festival held at the Meru Technical Institute included performances by Collo currently riding high with his ‘Bazokizo’ hit and his erstwhile Kleptomaniax group member Nyashinski whose return to the Kenyan music scene has been met with a lot of excitement.

The ageless Nameless brought the house down as the crowd sang along to his famous hits that have made him the household name and the star who is a tough act to follow. Backed by his dancers, his electrifying performance was one of the evening’s highlight that left the crowd asking for more.

For Rapper Khaligraph Jones, it was most certainly not his funeral on his maiden visit to the Mount Kenya region with the love he received from the audience who whipped out their phone to take photos of the hard-hitting rapper on stage.

The festival was not all song and dance but included performances by the Meru’s strongman Macement wowed the revellers when he lifted bags of cement with his teeth.

The event that is a brain child of Churchill Raw’s MC Jessy was attended by Meru natives working and living in Nairobi many of whom were in the town to celebrate Easter festivities with their kin. Meru’s most famous exports, actor Nick Mutuma and DJ Pierra Makena tto were in attendance alongside the cast and crew of Churchill Raw.

The home-grown talents of Nassizu Murume and Chuka University dancers got an opportunity to measure their strengths against the nation’s heavy weights and received much love and appreciation from the audience of revellers who had paid Sh1,000 to enjoy the party.

Ameru Festival is a two-day festival that will celebrate the Ameru culinary experience, entertainment and art was sponsored by Meru County Government, NTV, Sportpesa, Redbull, Nakumatt Supermarket, Three Steers Hotel and Solution Sacco.