Stonebwoy, M.anifest, Ice prince et al dazzle @ Afrobeats Festival

The much hyped first ever Afrobeats Festival came off at the weekend to a great deal of fun-fare and jubilation. The independence square came alive and was filled to capacity as artists like Shatta Wale, Ice prince, M.anifest, and Stonebwoy performed on the night.

As it’s becoming usual it was left to the hottest dancehall act in the country right now; self acclaimed "dancehall king in the whole Ghana", Shatta Wale to close the show.

Perhaps in an effort to put the naysayers in their place, Shatta put up arguably the performance of his life with a medley of his old and new songs to wild appreciation by the crowd. In the end, the audience was the winner as he took a leaf from his arch-nemesis, Samini's page by blending his old and new hits.

Other artists whose performances were of note were Kaakie, M.anifest, Stonebwoy and Wonda Boy who all dazzled the teeming crowd.

Recent winner of the BET Best African Act award, Ice Prince, gave a decent performance, considering the fact that it he was not originally on the bill and had only made an impromptu appearance.

Performances by Natural Face, Bisa Kdei, CREAL, and Swag Society were a good complement to that of the heavyweights though they couldn’t help but display their relative inexperience on such a big stage.

The organization of the show was almost flawless and it is a big plus to the BBnZ Live for organizing such a consummate show. Slowly, organization of shows in the capital city is becoming better as the perennial hitches have not been present in most of the big shows, especially as we approach Christmas.

Security, however, became a big issue as some artists requested that no security men be around them as they performed to the huge crowd which was held in check by a barricade meant to provide for their safety.

Ice prince for instance repeatedly requested that all security leave the inner perimeter where he was performing but the organizers did not oblige. This was perhaps best for all involved, both artists and organizers.

During Shatta Wale's performance people from the crowd kept invading the stage and this slightly interfered with the free flow of his performance. The event as a whole was however, a massive success.

BBnZ Live should pat themselves on the back for a good job done and we hope to see a bigger and better show next year.