By Mark Kihu, Guest Contributor
Opinions expressed by contributors are their own.
If you have heard of Ijumbe, you should know that we are all about events. If you did not, well now you do.
However, don’t get this misconception that events revolve around parties and clubbing. Good heavens, NOOO. We are more about the public lectures, public performances, sales, concerts, (we especially love the FREE ones. I mean who doesn’t?), exhibitions, etc. We are all about you living an eventful life (hope you noticed what I did there) life but well within your likes. Well, within the activities that make your heart skip a bit. Well, within an affordable budget, and flexible schedule (we understand the constraints of a 40-hour work week).
Nevertheless, that isn’t the purpose of this post. We as Ijumbe know that we have to go out of our way to show that we understand our trade and which better way than attend as many events as we can. One could argue misplaced priorities, but hey, these are our lives.
Top of the list of our finds is you can attend tons of events at no cost. So, don’t let budget constraints be your reason for not living eventfully (I am inclined to say a boring life, but my friend will not like it). There are some spaces in town that hold events daily and often from 6 in the evening. Surprisingly, most of these are free and take place during rush hour. They usually go down from 6 to 9 and thus an excellent way to pass the time and avoid traffic.
However, there is the idea that you cannot expect much from a free and relatively short event. Well, that is a lie, a big lie. Our best event of 2018 (The Simbin Project) was open and brief. It was a mix of traditional music and ultra-modernity, and it was the only performance in Nairobi. It blew us away.
It followed on from the group’s performance in Zanzibar at the Sauti za Busara festival. We highly doubt there is anything that can top that in 2018. Some spaces you can attend events in Nairobi are Goethe Institute (we loved their Literary Crossroads Discussion), PAWA254, and Alliance Francaise.
Following on our top finds is that nothing comes close a live performance. No blog post, no recording, no live video comes close to a live performance. Matter of fact, most of these are a sorry production. The energy, the crowd, the mistakes people make. Nothing can substitute it. The ambiance, being a part of the production and not the viewer. The experiences are just mindboggling. Don’t take my word for it though, attend an event and get a feel yourself.
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Salome Ayugi 