GMW 2014 IS HERE! GH All-Star Live Concert March 8

The second edition of GMW 2014, a week-long celebration of Ghanaian music, was launched at the Alisa Hotel on Tuesday morning. The main festival comes off from March 3 to March 9, 2014 at the National Theater, Accra Sports Stadium and other venues in Accra.

“2014 GMW is primarily about Education (seminars, forums); Festival (music, dance and comedy); and Awards Show; and seeks to be recognized as the biggest music festival and conferences in Africa within the next 5 years”, says Musiga President, Bice Osei Kuffour, in his keynote address.

GMW 2014 is organized in partnership with the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, the National Theatre, British Council of Ghana, Charterhouse and Fantasy Entertainment (U.S.A). According to Musiga, GMW will be organized under the broad theme ‘Positioning Ghanaian Music as heartbeat for Tourism Promotion” for the next 3 years.

“This is welcome news as the Government is aware of the many untapped potentials in the tourism and creative arts that require various forms of investments which Music continues to be one of them”, Said Mrs Elizabeth Ofosu-Agyare, Ministry for Tourism, Culture & Creative Arts.

She said the Ministry had been working closely with MUSIGA and other bodies in the arts industry in almost all of its activities, including PANAFEST and Emancipation Day Celebrations, World Tourism Day, among others.

“My office is open to support any creative arts domain with proposal worthy of considering”, said the Minister. She was referring to initiatives such as Musiga’s ongoing industry research work being undertaken by KPMG, aimed at establishing the economic contribution of Music to the National economy.

Mrs. Amy Appiah Frimpong, Deputy Executive Director of the National Theater added that: “National Theater is excited to be part of GMW from day one. As hosts, we promise that GMW 2014 will be the official meeting ground for those leading and shaping our industry; bringing together and encouraging participation of not only locals but internationals.”

Touching on highlights for this year’s festival, Obour outlined the following activities: “On March 3, 2014, Ghana Music Day (on the air), will see musicians hosting various radio and TV shows and granting interviews throughout the day”.

The Opening Ceremony, which is expected to celebrate music & dance from all 10 regions of Ghana, will be held at 11am on March 4 at the National Theater. According to Obour. “Unlike last year, there wouldn’t be exhibition of goods and services at the National Theater this year”. A Stakeholders Forum on Ghana Music Study (Research Project) comes off on Tuesday, March 4, 2014.

Ghana Music Honours, the industry’s ONLY awards show (by and) for the Industry, comes off on March 5 at the National Theater to reward music excellence. There will be a major Gospel Rock Show at one of the big Churches to be announced soon.

There would be a 2-Day Workshop on Music Business Development and Artiste Management on March 5 and March 7. The workshop will focus on ways to market and promote artistes in this modern era and will be facilitated by world class practitioners with broad-based marketing and entrepreneurial knowledge. The workshops are free and capacity is limited to 100 participants. Interested parties (artistes, artiste managers etc) are encouraged to submit their applications no later than February 27th, 2014.

To apply, artiste managers and everyone who works or would like to work in music management must complete the application form at www.ghanamusicweek.com.gh or contact Fiifi Khan at multimotivation@yahoo.co.uk.

Also, there will be regular updates at ghanamusicweek@live.com; facebook.com/ghanamusicweekfestival and twitter.com/GhanaMusicwk

GMW 2014 flagship concert dubbed ‘GH All-Star Live’ comes off at the Accra Sports Stadium on Saturday, March 8, 2014.