HomeCommunity StoriesBlankets & Wine, 50th edition Part 1

Blankets & Wine, 50th edition Part 1

Hey guys, Happy New Year! I hope it started off well for you. Welcome back to the blog, I am back from the Christmas break and looking forward to a great year of travel and blogging.

This past weekend I attended the Blankets & Wine music festival. Blankets & Wine is a monthly picnic-style family friendly music festival showcasing emerging genres of Urban-African music. It was their 50th edition and to mark the milestone they held a two day event at the Canivore grounds Nairobi, Kenya. Best believe this girl was so excited that she bought her tickets last year. The last time I posted about Blankets and Wine was almost 1yr ago, you can take a look at the post here.

Day one, which was on Saturday was going to be having Sarabi (Kenya), Maurice Kirya (Uganda), Muthoni (Kenya), Just A Band (Kenya)  Mi Casa (South Africa) and Sauti Sol (Kenya) on stage. Thanks to my friends African timing  I only got to watch  2 minutes of of Sarabi’s performance. SARABI, is an 8 member Afro-Fusion band formed in 2005. I have had the chance to watch them once before and their energy on stage is amazing.

The event began at two but we got there at around half past three – still early enough to get a good spot in the shade close to the stage.

Blankets&Wine50

 

Blankets&Wine50_Brenda

 

Next on stage was Maurice Kirya,he prefers to call his style of music “Mwooyo” or Soul. Maurice got on stage about an hour late but the DJ did a pretty good job in keeping us occupied during the duration.

Blankets&Wine50_Maurice Kirya1

 

Blankets&Wine50_Maurice Kirya2

 

Blankets&Wine50_Maurice Kirya's Band

 

By now the crowds were building up

Blankets&Wine50_Crowd1

 

Blankets&Wine50_Crowd2

 

After Maurice’s performance there was another interlude, I decided to wander off to take more pictures. I bumped into some of my friends at the Cutty Skark tent.

Blankets&Wine50_CuttySark

Here is one of my friend’s caricature, an artist at the tent drawing them for free. I had mine done too.

 

Next on stage was Muthoni the Drummer Queen who was joined by Octopizzo for part of her performance.

Blankets&Wine50_MuthoniNdonga

 

Blankets&Wine50_Muthoni&Octopizzo

 

Blankets&Wine50_OctopizzoOctopizzo

 

Blankets&Wine50_coupleThis couple asked me to take their photo; they expect to see it on Facebook, if anyone knows them feel free to share.

Now my favorite performance of the day… Just a Band. Just a Band is a Kenyanhouse/funk/disco band whose members are Bill “Blinky” Sellanga, Dan Muli, Mbithi Masya

Blankets&Wine50_Ratia

 

Blankets&Wine50_Just A Band Bill (2)

 

Blankets&Wine50_Just A Band Bill&Mbithi

 

Blankets&Wine50_Just A Band Bill

 

Blankets&Wine50_Just A Band Dan

Just ABand killed it! I was up at the very front letting them know how much I love them. I recorded their performance  ‘Probably for Lovers’ ; see below or check it at our YouTube channel .

Performance by Just A Band

Next on stage was the main act of the day, South Africa’s Mi Casa. Micasa Music  is a house band based in Johannesburg, South Africa and consisting of 3 members, Dr. Duda (producer and pianist), Jsomething (vocalist and guitarist), and Mo-T (trumpeter).

Blankets&Wine50_Mi Casa JSomething1

 

Blankets&Wine50_Mi Casa JSomething2

 

Blankets&Wine50_Mi Casa JSomething3

 

Blankets&Wine50_Mi Casa Mo-T1

 

Blankets&Wine50_Mi Casa Mo-T2I love their outfits! They really put some thought into them. I especially love Mo-T’s t-shirt.

Lastly was Sauti Sol. Sauti Sol is a Kenyan Afro-pop band from Nairobi comprising members; Bien Aime Baraza (vocals & guitar), Polycarp Otieno (guitar), Willis Austin Chimano (vocals, saxophone & guitar) and Delvin Mudigi (vocals, percussion & drums).

By now I was exhausted. I took a break and sat down to rest towards the end of Mi Casa’s performance. I got briefly to take pictures of Sauti Sol on stage but I did not have the energy to fight with that crowd. Luckily someone else was willing to brave the crowds, thank you Kevin for taking the pictures.

Blankets&Wine50_Sauti Sol Chimano1

 

Blankets&Wine50_Sauti Sol Chimano2

 

Blankets&Wine50_Sauti Sol dancing

 

Blankets&Wine50_Sauti Sol Delvin

 

Blankets&Wine50_Sauti Sol Polycarp

 

Blankets&Wine50_Sauti Sol2

Part two of this post should be up later this week.

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Linked to Our World Tuesdays.

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Blankets and Wine @ 50 part 2

10 Comments

  1. January 8, 2014 at 3:42 pm — Reply

    Cool photos 🙂

  2. January 8, 2014 at 4:29 pm — Reply

    Fantastic!

  3. January 9, 2014 at 2:31 am — Reply

    Looks like a very fun, colourful, dancing kind of evening.I love the energy your photos show.

  4. keniamoja
    January 9, 2014 at 9:42 am — Reply

    Nice pics and looks like a lot of fun. I did not know the event ends in late at night, last i attended one they ended at around 7 in the evening.

    • January 9, 2014 at 10:37 pm — Reply

      Everything was running late. Sauti Sol were getting on stage at around midnight.

  5. January 9, 2014 at 8:48 pm — Reply

    This definitely looks like a fun event. And I’m always looking out for good world music, so I’ll have to look up some of these artists and add them to my playlist. And that guy’s split leap is pretty good! 😉

  6. Manesha
    January 12, 2014 at 12:02 am — Reply

    Too bad couldn’t attend, babies and all, will be on for the next one!

  7. January 15, 2014 at 8:11 am — Reply

    Lots of wonderful energy at this concert. Love the crowd shots as well. Looks like this was the place to be!

  8. Stella
    March 27, 2015 at 11:07 am — Reply

    Kindly notify us any event early enough. What are you having today?

  9. September 28, 2015 at 7:42 am — Reply

    […] headliner was Micasa who I had last watched during the last Blankets and Wine Festival. The other acts were Webi and Suzanna […]

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