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Muthoni DQ — transcript

From a Monthly Picnic to 17 Years of East Africa's Most Iconic Festival Muthoni DQ, Blankets & Wine

This transcript is generated automatically by YouTube and has not been checked by a person. It misspells names and mishears words, particularly around Kenyan English and company names, so read it as a guide to the conversation rather than a quotable record. Each timestamp opens the video at that moment.

0:00 [Music] good afternoon ladies and gentlemen welcome to episode 16 of the African do podcast and today it's my great pleasure to have mudoni DQ co-founder of Good Times Africa brand owner of the now uh regionally famous internationally famous blankets and wine um and it's a great pleasure to have M here uh watched blankets and wine first as a silent observer in the background in my early days when I was at the carnival and to see it grow into one of the Premier festivals in the market is something that fills me with great joy so mudoni welcome wo thanks I'm excellent so so I don't know if I've ever told you where I first heard about blankets no I was working at the carnival and uh Tom AO of live gigs who's a very good friend yeah uh we whenever we're setting up for functions we used to talk a lot and Tom comes to me and tells me um it's a young lady who's doing something something in in in R I think

1:16 somewhere drink and she says yeah it's called blankets and wine it's a festival it's just easy and it's small now but I think it would be something big and I was reflecting on that yesterday in preparation for this maybe we can start there yeah so you're a creative you have been in the Art Space you're you you you musician yeah but what give birth to blankets and wine where did it start from yeah so blankets is actually me trying to solve my own problem which is h a place to platform myself so I'm a musician that's my primary profession I sing i r rap I play a set of drums and I still love music which is cool m but when I started to release work um I kind of ran into a sentiment that the work was too alternative um it wasn't linear enough it didn't fit into the spaces that existed then it was a very pop driven Market okay and then there was

2:19 another strain of Music at that time um which was afro Fusion which was H kind of so think Susanna a um and so yeah that music was very um outward facing it was very like European to a circuit music so there really wasn't space for somebody who was kind of experimenting with like you know versions of pop hip hop uh Fusion of English swahilis kind of spoken word it's kind of like the genre bending there really wasn't a lot of space for that and so I had to make space for myself and I had a gig that I was playing at a club in Westlands and then it was time to kind of we got got to the point where it's either you find a new venue or you stop being in music cuz the gig stopped working at the venue you wereing okay and I wasn't ready to stop music so I wanted to find another venue and then you know in a conversation with my friends are like yeah but if you move from one club to another club you're

3:16 really just kind of kicking the can down the road all the clubs kind of have the same logic and same approach so maybe you want to just find a space that you can Define for yourself like pretty much build your own space your own club your own venue and um a lady who I know had come and watched me when I was performing at the alance FES and she was like Hey I have this outdoor space I'm starting if you ever want some help or if you ever want to utilize for something the outdoor space at tyana that was in redre okay and she was really a champion for the work that I was doing then and she had this outdoor space that was new so it was very mutally helpful I needed a space to try stuff she needed foot footall so we got together and wants and just for people to know about it and we have a gig at that time I was like yeah maybe I can do a show so I spoke with my friends and we kind of in

4:12 that discussion were're like yeah actually pretty much everything you're doing just do the opposite instead of trying to do a gig M at a venue that's like close by go somewhere a little bit out of the way which means people have to choose you and then it's going to be an experience coming to you then design an experience from scratch what does it look like what does it feel like what people see what do people engage with and it was like oh yeah so actually I'm pivoting out of trying to make a concert series for myself and really designing a festival experience that includes me and others and it was also around the same time there was other you know I had contemporaries I had peers that dressed a band I had um sa Soul there was a bunch of us who are looking to make different work I also knew this guy is like the UN the suas people who are

5:01 really on a European touring circuit didn't have a lot of opportunities to play at home so like okay The Misfits and the afro Fusion guys we can be together put them all together and everyone can bring their 50 funds and let's see where it goes okay so you start now so you you have a you have a venue and you have an idea yeah U your your idea is a bit contrarian because it's it's driven from what the market was not providing for you yes so how do the first few days two starting and the first um concert yeah how how does that look like how is that Journey yeah so going in okay first I had a lot of conviction around this idea if for nothing else my homies were like yes we're coming so I was like okay my friends are coming and if everybody yeah I like if everyone comes with like one other homie we'll be 100 guys right um it's a Sunday it's Day drink it's outdoor there's very few ways

6:02 this can go wrong you know like I couldn't there was no version I'm like what let's even say the stage collapses you're still there with your friends and you you have your your drinks you have your picnic you're in a great environment so you know I felt like experientially the thing was still going to work but there was a lot of push back when I kind of reached out cuz I decided we're doing it and then I did the research afterwards it's like the ball is in motion yeah yeah we're moving now I'm just like you know so where's the push back coming from the push back is coming from oh you know like it's better to do a show on a Saturday you know Saturday night is when people do shows Sunday there church guys mhm then uh the other one was uh but it's a thousand Bob we don't know the names the no no no no names and you're charging like a thousand Bob like how M

6:59 eh those two were really and then the third one cuz kambur didn't look the way kambur looks now it was It was kind of struggled it was the old kambo road if you yeah previously on kambo road yeah so then there was also that like where are you taking us yeah where the heck is this place where are we going and it was really interesting that that sentiment and then there was another sentiment which was kind of like maybe you know it was wasn't a strong yes was kind of like maybe and all this is before the concert has happened so you're getting now your feedback guys okay yeah this is what I've put in uh my letter with my boss where I was working yes so I'm moving this is what's happening what you moving it's a job that's the job now entrepreneurship so that was it was very mixed bag in that in that way but also I didn't have a lot of time to really think about what people was saying

8:00 because doing a gig is a whole thing like um the artists who you know were originally booked I had to do the pitch it was it was not an automatic booking like now when you know the booking agent calls and of course so I had to pach you're selling two ways you're selling to the artist but you're also selling to the customer yes so I had to sell to the artist I had a lot of strong support from the artists right from the beginning everybody was down to do something different and also there weren't the opportunities so it's there's no real reason to turn down this opportunity you know worst case scenario you do it and you don't like it you never do it again um but you're not busy it's Sunday you're not busy so why not so that kind of felt good that the artists were the artists were alone in this and then now I had to you know convince the you know the first

8:52 people who do sound you know staging they I used to produce a gig for myself now it's producing for others so just that learning cve of thinking about others kind of think around like uh soundtrack times uh their Hospitality exactly all those other things but it wasn't new uh for one thing I had already toured internationally by the time I was starting blankets I had been on a project uh Bring the Noise a British Council sponsored project okay uh we'd spent like two weeks in residency in London and then we had performed to audiences who didn't know who we we were at all and that experience actually really had encouraged me that you know people like music and people like to discover things and as long as somebody is able to vouch for you so whether it's a venue if you're performing at a venue and has regulars and they just trust the programming at the venue or if it's

9:42 somebody who is marketing you in front of users I felt that people would come I had had that experience okay so honestly I didn't think nobody would come okay I thought guys would come um the other thing also is then because i' hadd been in this environment and then I'd been running my own show for a year and something I already knew around Tex set up I used to set up my own Tech and I knew about tech setup so I wasn't really surprised by that I knew what it cost for for Tech to set up I knew about artist Hospitality I'd been a recipient of that you know I'd offer Hospitality also to my band when okay performing so it wasn't new it was a scale that was kind of just bigger and I was like oh my God it's it's bigger and then it's like you're everything yes you're making the poster to perform and you're also in your own rehearsals and so it was very exhausting and and how

10:31 how are you um a recurring theme on this podcast has always been Kenyan entrepreneurs and funding yeah so how you funding this so this was 100% from my savings yeah your savings I was like exct hoping that BR I was like as long as it all comes back so again it wasn't new for me because I was running a night like I was saying at Westland and that that was the model i' pre-finance and then I'd make it back at gate and then I had 20% of the FNB okay so it wasn't new to me I was comfortable with that process of like wake up it was not all unknown it was not all unknown I wasn't operating unknowns what really was new for me was the scale okay and kind of like oh you have to think about four bands coming for soundtrack as opposed to just yourself and you have to think about like X number of people now in the setup crew because they have to put up they

11:21 have to rig a stage and they have to rig lighting and whereas in the in the club venue you know the things were already there so I just needed to bring kind of my backline that I'm using so that was different the scale was was different and then um everything goes through me you know I'm the one who has the tickets so I have to hand over the tickets I have to hand over the towels for artists it that was surprising like how much of me was needed to go around and the recognition for like okay you're going to need to build a team really quick because it's not sustainable like if I'm on stage singing and somebody needs something now true what should they do in the metime um and I must say we also had some Fortune ali um because then the lady where I was doing the show at tyana the owner of tyana um was friends or relatives with um the PC then at Capital okay and so she pitched her

12:21 this idea and you know they were quite they were like yeah let's we're down to support we'll give you like some advertising so the very first gig we did we were on Capital free of charge yeah for free yeah um and I think I was going home and I had myself on the on the radio in the mat like advertising and that's when it became real for me and then there I really died cuz I'm like oh my God it's now I can't take it back people are coming guys are coming and that was cool we had 120 folks so now let's talk about that fast that fast blanket and wine yeah so you have gone through the the the hustle and bustle youve figured the sound out you've got you've scaled it up from but now day one yeah how's that um it was hey that's a degree of anxiety yeah I I really believe the beginning stages of blankets gave me alers yeah it was it was insane yes it was insane like

13:19 first the suspense cuz also there was nothing like pre- ticketing now okay in fact I would like to say at this point we are the ones who brought ticketing ticket Sasa approached us and we were the first we were Cent zero of ticketa and we're the ones who taugh the market like you can buy a ticket in advance you can trust this online platform the ticket is real when you bring it to the door it's a real ticket yes so that time there's no pre- ticketing so you really don't know who's coming until they come you don't know what time they're going to come when they eventually get there so I'm just there stressed me and the titing and what was that kickoff time it started at 2m always been yeah always at 2 p.m. so you're just waiting people come in no in fact quite a number of people really came on time cuz this was novel there was something also about blankets

14:10 the preposition and that remains to date the fundamental preposition once it's put in front of you for consideration yes it's it's not a long thing it's kind of like do you like music would you like to hear something that you know maybe something you don't know it's in the afternoon you're with your friends you're having drinks easy it's easy it's good vibes people look good it's in a dope location it's Sunday afternoon yeah you are probably just lazing around on your couch see now you just come and hang out to your p and then by 8:00 p.m. you're home so the the fundamental preposition is not that complicated right once it's put in front of your consideration that that part is not hard so people came in time and then and you said you got how many people yeah 120 I was stage was just there dancing it was there probably you know it was before we' found a Raj

15:04 and then after Raj gigs live gigs so our original supplier the stage was just there dancing us like wow I really pray no one gets electrocuted thing fall down the thing they fall down and we're not electrocuted yeah it was so struggle yes but but you pulled it off things start from somewhere you know we pulled it off and the basics were like wow that was so great we didn't know any of those folks that was such an enjoyable show and let's talk a bit about the name so originally if I recall right it was blankets and wine you encourage people to come with their blanket and your yeah and you sit down and you lay your blanket on the grass and and you enjoy that sty is that what happened yeah okay yeah that was the original value preposition familyfriendly picnic style festival bring your bring your date bring your pals bring your mom bring your pet enjoy enjoy the music is on us

15:56 you bring the Vibes we co-create this experience together fast one and you you you you yeah then we make our money back and we make our money back and we like left with like 20K so we're able to pay like for some toiletries whatever and then you know we have like a 15K to flip on the next gig that was 2008 2008 yeah November 2008 was the first blanket okay yes that makes sense okay so 2008 you pull it off and then what when do you how do you then determine when am I going to be doing this exactly yeah so first I was already used to a monthly Cadence so I thought the monthly CAD with the previous gig so I just rolled that over okay I didn't know what I was signing up for MH cuz I thought it's just like you know see I already know how to do monthly yes I didn't know what it now means when it's monthly and it's not just you and there's multiple artists there's multiple artists there you have to think

16:50 about programming in advance and W the ratri yeah so the next gig December also worked out and I remember it was the same day Kaji Boga had a Big Show and he had like Billboards now Capital are like yeah sorry now if you want ads you have to pay and like as guys I have no money to here yeah yeah so we couldn't pay for that and it was just our hope that if you came you liked it enough to come again and that's exactly what happened the people who came enjoyed it enough to come again and uh for the first year honestly it was all just word of mouth it's like you come you like it you couldn't afford any ads nothing we didn't even think and to be honest we didn't even know how to really frame the ads you know like um that initial radio run was really helpful because they they they helped us engineer the language but kind of going um month on month we you know cuz

17:45 it's a lot of these artists were playing um in small small communities so you don't necessar this communities are not necessarily cross-pollinating each other so you don't necessarily know who these artists are so we are really selling this idea of come discover which is almost contrarian to the way the market was consuming at that time which is we go for things we know yes we Champion a champion we don't we don't build a champion yeah yes that's a little bit the Kenyan Market to be to be honest but there's been some huge growth it's a it's a completely different thing now um so when the second one pulled off then I was like okay now game on now I'm sure can I'm here now this is it I took January off and I really feel like I I Dreamed a big dream and I feel like I really downloaded I was given the vision this is the way it can look this is how

18:41 you can solve for Africa this is what this live ecosystem looks like this is how this gig can be useful to like really circulate an economy around artists this is your wish list so I just kind of build a big vision and then from then it was just like game on still there were never any big lips okay blankets was always just kidogo organic you guys come one day someone comes from the ticketing and says hey we've sold out our tickets and I'm like what now those are like 350 tickets now you've sold out you know which we didn't even know we would reach a sellout point you know um I really feel like I learned early like this is like when three four five yeah maybe by the time we were hitting um March okay March of the 20 2009 is when I think we had our first the fourth one yeah we had a sellout then also there's some things that like by the time we hit April of

19:43 2009 yes we were like yeah you guys we should do blankets in diani yeah let's do blankets in yeah it's just me and my of my committee yeah Boulder audacious and also I want to say like Jing you don't you don't know what you don't know so since you guys normally go to cost for Easter you homies we just go now since we're already going we just take blankets like yes let's just take blankets so blankets out of town out of town and it's indiani and it sounds like such an amazing idea and on some levels it is but on some levels it's incredibly insane cuz it's like there artist Logistics you know how the heck are you Logistics yeah sound Logistics artist Logistics accommodations transporting oh my god really the beginnings of blankets game so you so you did that so that was April yeah so because we've already announced how was that now that was so cool so you

20:44 you did what you mov equipment yeah so we moved equipment that time we're working with um Raj and so they moved equipment to diani and they moved Engineers by road we moved artists by uh by bus I think like um has did Scouting For Us on the coast I think she was living there then then like gr Salam who wasc she was in charge of like get the artists to the place we'd found some hotels the gig was at 40 thieves they were like yeah sure come and do your Festival here and then they were like oh you must come here every year into this Festival oh wow yeah because then it's like nothing was happening in diani so they did they they advertised for us on the Strip diani then looked quite different from now yes so people of the trip came in they're like can you come every month and we're like never you're never seeing us again of course the next year and for the next three years in a

21:36 row we were there it was really it was really fun it was a fun project there was an element of uncharted waters and you have no data set was it a profitable project yeah it was yeah okay blanket the you you went to diani you still managed to crack it and make money was it a b or how can't remember how much I think we charged a little bit more for deani um and maybe we didn't make money maybe we just broke even at diani um but some key key learnings yeah and also because then there was all this guys because the next year I remember you had we had a great delegation a great number of folks who lived on the North Coast who then took the ferry to the South Coast for blankets yes yes um so it just so it became an annual blankets in became an annual yeah around April we did that for like three or four years in a row and then we were like hey bro the

22:35 suspense is going to kill us and also by that time now we had a strong takeoff in Nairobi MH and it was more useful for us to start think about what could a regional um development look like than kind of our fan annual migration to the coast okay yeah and so you you when do you outgrow your fast location at the end of 2009 and where did you moved to yeah at the end of 2009 in fact the end of 2009 think the next time we advertised on radio and now that you know we had headlin cash now yeah now that we had some cash to pay we made a deal we we had an arrangement but yeah we paid for we paid for the time and now that time we had like 600 something guys now it's like hey it's unsustainable now we have Tove like a thing yes so then we moved to Hill Crest Hill Crest yes in in Karen they had a great field and they had a really great marketing manager at the time Tiki um she was very

23:42 pro music and she like yeah you can do this yes of course some stringent conditions around you know the the school environment making sure you've cleared your trash you know before parents drop off the next day so there was quite a lot of post event work that we had to do to get the venue yes but Hillcrest was fantastic as a location a fantastic location and we grew at Hill Crest so there's some folks moving to hrrest taught me that was my first lesson in Atri right like you always lose some people agreed so you always have to be in pipeline development because then there's just folks I've moved from Nairobi or I can't come I'm sick I'm whatever it's not too far I used to come cuz it was convenient now you're now you're the other guys who are guys of kambu and exactly now you're telling CR please you know it's pre super highways pre highe yeah bypasses and things like it was a

24:38 long thing to move from kaburu to go to Karen so so then now we have to build a new community in Karen and you know gong road so uh the first one in Karen did you still attract decent numbers decent there was a slight deep de and then we rebuilt in a couple of months okay the other thing that was good for us is the monthly cuz monthly created stickiness yes so then you didn't need to think about the date you just know it's the first Sunday if it's the first Su of the month there's blankets always the first Sunday suay of the month there's blankets just so 12 blankets a year uh or 11 10 10 cuz I think would skip uh May cuz of rain and uh there's another one we often skipped I'm trying to remember which one but we had two August that July August July August yeah because of intense rain cold okay so those are the two we'd skip so maybe we parked the bus about the blankets itself

25:34 yeah and you have been party to this ecosystem emerging ecosystem of of festivals in the Kenyan context for a long time because you know 2008 to date we we we're talking 16 years in 16 years you know so you've literally watched the industry grow and and as a result of you watching the industry grow participating in it you know it better than most yeah where are the gaps and the opportunities um first I think we have a real infrastructure problem uh we need fit for purpose spaces yes um and maybe that's something that the government can really lean into um you have a space like uh Stadium yes that should be an automatic anybody who wants to do a large scale gig should use now Stadium but it's not easy to use now Stadium some of it is the uh the condition of the facilities some of it is the I want to say just the lack of imagination from

26:41 the management yeah Stadium manager of of that facility and some of it is just you know users so like really if you think about that as a space that's going to be used often for lots and lots of things there should be some cooperation with the city to think around like traffic Management on on on those roads and really how to think about cuz it's at a triangle of three roads so it's really to think around that going to move people in and out of this place but that's as close to a fit for purpose venue as we have we have prod yeah we did produce a um an event it's good times we produced an event for spot PESA there some years ago and it was a really dope experience from the production side like kind of just seeing cuz stadiums come with lots of things spaces St curiously in stum we used half the the half the the field okay so you had like the stage in the middle so the

27:41 stage was in the middle and then we did you know artist hospitality and stuff at the back the back of the stage all the way to the exactly yeah it's really cool like producing in a stadium is really cool there's lots of storage uh stadiums generally come with uh like meting and toilets and security and there's parking you know so it's it's really allows you to move to the next level you're not solving some very basic things you're not solving a toilet problem you know you can take that energy and think hey how where where should VIPs sit and how do you give a like a VIP experience so I think that's a major thing of fit for purpose uh infrastructure venues I also see that there's lots of folks who are starting to respond to that uh um and I have a lot of respect for like the house scene has actually birth some really fit for purpose venues uh places like Koda or

28:40 Muse yes um even the repurposing of like a tiny venue like the Mist Temple you can see the house SC really has some really good fit for purpose venues the question is how much scale they can the house music yeah house music scene has a lot of those um we're seeing other spaces now like Mass house or or room that are seeking to address this spaces for live music sort of presentation so I feel encouraged and the other thing that's kind of interesting now is um unlike say uh when it was the carnivores and and and them kind of venues which are still incredible venues by the way now these venues are owned by um industry people it's DJs and musicians yes who own them yeah so the thinking is they lay how they lay out the how they're resourcing those spaces they're thinking like performers and they're thinking in terms of entertainment first and not kind of like food and

29:37 entertainment they're thinking like presentation of work so I think it's really encouraging and I think we're going to see more I think that the space good times is going to take is really spaces that scale because then you do want that 10,000 uh capacity space that can do indoor outdoor yes so that I don't know when you know nyashinski says he's doing his n city he can drive that number yeah he has a space and he's not also in basics of tents to cover people bring toilets so there's a big lighting for parking you know what I mean so there is now we have we have tapped we've reached that level where the artists in the scene have those numbers and can drive those numbers and fairly decent regularly regularly and the market is different we had June on the podcast right and one of the things we discussed is how our concert and Festival has a very strong buildup

30:44 breakdown culture you know because of exactly what you see there are no locations so everyone I have to come with the toilets I have to come with tents is it going to rain and then I remember in my early days in the carnival we used to have the megadome thing oh and it's only KVM who had that one0 exact you it's C and when you add it you just slap that thing into the line you're like who it fundamentally changes the budget so your ticket prices has changed exactly yeah pretty much everything has to change so I really think that that's one one thing fit for purpose venues what are you seeing from the artist side because again that's another Journey you have yeah you seen so what are you seeing on that side I think a thing that for me is really um missing and I think that there's an opportunity there is there's still too few female voices at Top Line

31:44 and sort of midline level and they're there the volume of work substantive incredible work actually some of Kenya's best uh streaming music are not not our girls aab yes millions and millions of streams yes but they're just not in the circuit yes they're just not in the circuit and why is that so I I don't know we are not in the circuit you know the festival is not in the circuit what I mean by the circuit is what I love about Nairobi somewhat Kenya but mostly Nairobi is in a week there's several places where there's live music being programmed you know um the the the be District Place uh gecko uh like I said Koda mus there is stuff yes every day of the week you can catch some music somewhere being played and I think that's phenomenal yeah um so I don't know why we don't have as many of this women in the circuit and I think that for me is something that we really want

32:46 to yeah that's a big opportunity something that we really want to address and then I think there is something to be said on um more speciality things um and I I really feel this as a consumer not everything needs to be a festival not everything needs to be in a field for 3,000 guys you know there are actually things that should literally be for 100 people and that's the best way to enjoy those things and they should be in a small room and it should have like incredible intimacy and it can be a very high value ticket and it can also just be a mid tier ticket you know it doesn't so I think that that idea of speciality things yeah speciality speciality things I think that's also another space you know and also not everything has to be a concert you know maybe it should be a party as opposed to a concert you know tell us the difference so

33:43 um I think that and especially in this world of uh Discovery yes um you want to lower the barrier for me who is to to discover right so may it's easier to maybe pitch me uh themed party right like an auditory an audio theme yes offer me a playlist so that I can know what I'm coming for and then you your cost as the party producer now you don't need to be programming no artist so you don't need to be think about artist fees and you know whatever you just need to think about DJs and playlists yes so that me who is coming for the party that can be my first experience of this music and let me be the one to ask for can I now watch that artist live right cuz cost of a concert and cost of a party are different and so not everything needs to be a concert maybe you want to First build a sound and a community of people who want to discover and then you

34:42 can upsell those people to a concert experience and then you can upsell that Concert Experience into a festival experience you see okay so there space it doesn't have to be this one big thing right from the from the drum and I think space for those like sort of specialty um and I'm seeing a little bit like okay oh people who collect like vinyl vinyl is back yes vinyl collectors tend to be like really people with strong music taste yes so a vinyl collection Party play with a playlist where we're saying hey we want to we want you guys to discover all this women making Kenyan R&B and then it's like oh do you like that now can we get together and have two of them sing to us at the next party so so you've covered youve covered the we've covered infrastructure but most of it was physical infrastructure and how that has evolved we have covered H the the artists and the music and how that's

35:39 evolving let's speak a bit about the sound sound lighting stage how is that space looking you have seen it over 16 years evolve what is that is there is it do you feel it saturated is there still room for better equipment or or how does that space sit so first I must say you know also having worked in the region we're really spoiled in Nairobi you know we've always had good sound and and good lighting options in Nairobi we always had had it now your money will determine how much access you have to it yeah but the gear is here yeah and there are technicians in the region but um there are places where we are really lagging behind like light engineering we are lagging behind like lighting is a language so there's a lot of gear but there's not a lot of interpretation of that gear exactly okay so enter the work we do with our incubator because then in

36:36 another life I also run perform music incubator which we designed specifically for Skilling purposes Skilling and upskilling capacity building because you the industry can't just be musicians musicians need managers publicists event producers sound Engineers light Engineers so where is the school in Kenya you can go and say hi I want to learn how to an artist manager develop that from a need we develop that from a need my own gaps the industry gaps working at the festival and seeing the gaps you know it's like this a really great artist why we having such a difficulty in interfacing it's like oh yeah because you're just not framework you just don't have this support system that should speak to us in the way that the festival is speaking to you you know so we're like yeah just build a school so that's what perform music incubator is we're actually currently running yeah

37:26 where is it so we run training right now we've been training from Shalom uh and we actually going country Countrywide we are we under a project called Sara U MasterCard Foundation put together projects and got in different partners yeah and we're part of that project and so we will train in Nairobi kisumu toana how many people training so in total we will have trained 1,600 by the time we're done with this Loop wow and that's in what in sound sound engineering light engineering uh artist management artist publicity event uh production and the artists themselves whether they are musicians or whether they're the music producer so that it has to be an industry we all just have to level up creative economy is alive man creative economy is Alive and Well a whole thing it's amazing so what I can say is the house music side I really give a lot of credit there

38:27 because house music is necessarily an audiovisual experience like at its Zenith if you the when when we grew up the things that we're seeing whether it's Ultra Music Festival or you know all these things that were abroad the way we understood house music is it comes with a very stylized stage yes and then the lighting is part of the music it's part of the driver of the emotion you know cuz it's just otherwise it's just you know beats yes for hours on end so right from the beginning here the adoption of those things when I'm thinking about like um Earth dance or the 6 a.m. parties yes they were always like pushing the idea of what does the lighting look like what does the sound look like and that's only gone growing and growing so like I was saying spaces like you know kod or Muse you'll see some incredible complex parties incredible light design yeah and so some of that is already happening and so it's

39:25 actually us guys on the live music side who have to kind of borrow this this house space for someone like me who's now getting along in years yeah don't accept just get tell me so um because a lot of the things that you're mentioning me I'm completely clueless I've not heard of those house festivals that you're so like now where would something like beneath the bow bub fit is that absolutely beneath the that EOS you're not too bad and actually beneath the BS have like some fundamental advantages because then they have a a very long partnership on the venue that they are in they pretty much designed their venue in their image and likeness and they have no they're not going to be kicked out anytime soon right so it's happening you know folks like gondwana who have been running you know a party series and and like the festivals even collaborating with the South African

40:30 festival and bringing it here it's really it's really a great space and they are much more I would say advanced in terms of like to your point earlier around lighting the live sound um we are doing quite well as far as engineering is concerned there's there's much more of that the lighting guys have to catch up with the LI guys have to catch up with the sound guys but it's also because the sound guys are part of this circuit you see what I was talking about constantly doing constantly in the in the gig circuit whether they're at I know The Alchemist or the N there's something you're always working on the board these artists that you're attached to your artists are are touring or they're in high demands so they're playing gigs yes so the sound side I feel like we're doing better it's the lighting side that now has to catch up and lighting for life is you know

41:20 there's the original investment which is you have to have the lighting rig and this is why it hasn't really developed cuz a lot of the owners of cap haven't been open to developing their personnel yes it has taken a perform to come in and say okay now give me your personnel I train for you right in order to execute this so that you can execute because a lot of the demand for lighting is really the corporates okay right for launches anniversaries and stuff like that yeah so there hasn't been a strong demand coming out of of the music industry to say hey we need leveled up lighting it's set for me all what is the language how come when I watch a Beyonce or an as show see how come the lights are part of the experience they're part of the storytelling how come we don't see that so now we are asking those questions and by delivering the training I really

42:16 think the landscape is going to look significantly different in like another 3 years you know you can sit down with someone I see you I see you every day or every other day and then I don't know and there's so much going on it's not just blanket in wine but there's so much going on in your world so we have talked about what about the customer let's come to the customer the customer how by the way I had really really really good things about December's blankets and wine I mean the kind of feedback that I was getting from friends my nieces my nephews I mean the we didn't make it because we were traveling the next day but yeah congratulations the customer you have seen from 120 years now where you're talking about big numbers I think you did what 10,000 10K plus yeah so that's quite a 16 years yeah credit for for staying yeah yeah but credit for staying the path you know so what does that look

43:21 like now what what have you seen how has the customer evolved yeah yeah so first I must say it's been really uh joyful to First transition folks out of H attendees into a community that's been a really important thing then I think as more music platforms have grown music consumption has really grown it's taken off so the Spotify the Apple music the YouTubes the dunos the boom plays folks are streaming music yes and so people know music and like it's really cool designing um programming for people who know music you know what I mean you're not still hard K yes it's it's an informed client it's an informed yeah there's much there's much when we put out playlists and we're like oh discover this people actually listen to the playlist and you know discover then they tell us who they want and so I think that's been something that's been really

44:20 um cool yes the other thing I think we've seen with the with this client is the the the music is their reason to come to blankets and this is I mean it was there from the beginning now I guess it just becomes the volume of humans for the artist it's such an A1 experience really it's such an A1 experience um because like when you play a corporate gig yes you are not the reason why people are at the gig yes they there for the gig you are support function whatever whether it we were giving praises and the din you now right so that gig is not it doesn't feel the same as people who came for you right okay um like in December we landed our programming were like this thing is starts at 12 and the second stage cuz now we have two stages at the festival the electronic music stage starts at 12 and the branch and everything and the life stage starts at 2: and like we you

45:28 need to be there before two because this hot artist of yours your hottest artist they playing at 2 p.m let's go and watching people responding to that and being there on time that was so I can't even it feels really really good for the artist to know that yeah my people are riding for me and they arrive on time and they're here for the show nice and then we're also seeing from the merchandise side that you know people are buying merchandise and like I'm saying there's a vinyl buying culture that's come back you know and so this is a music consumer who is actually consuming music and it's a Kenya first music consumer interesting in its variety so whether you're speaking I don't know hip-hop or abant tone or gang or R&B but there's a very strong Kenya driver and we've seen I mean at the festival we've seen you know phases of you know when the audience was

46:24 like yeah Kenya but they were Nigeria first or yeah Kenya but there was a bongo component and now we really see it's like it's Kenya first and then then everybody else can be added to us but we want to see ourselves we want to hear ourselves it's really it's really powerful there confidence there that wasn't there before I think so and maybe the other thing is also the volume of work yes this is the other thing on the AR side there's now much much much much more volume of work than when were starting yeah because I actually remember that was one of our first crisises at blankets maybe maybe in our second year in Hill Crest and we were like guys we've pretty much played everybody who is in the scene at least three times wow so what do we do for programming how do we make sure that people still keep coming back to this thing how doesn't

47:18 the thing feel like stale and that is when we started to actually import artists that was part of the the Gap we were plugging okay to just give the the the scene the Kenyan scene like time to like regenerate you know so if you've played we give you enough time to like go back to Studio whatever and you have new records and so by the time you're playing again there's a new project that you're bringing right so then theum is not bored now there's volume of work you know it's and depth volume and depth of work right so now it's like okay last year you played savara and this year you already have like a new project so are we playing you again or not you know what I mean so the the the volume of the the speed of regeneration the the volume of the music the volume of the artists and everybody's listening to everything I think there's less barriers now like

48:05 the same person who's listening to some really Advanced smooth R&B is also like bumping to abandon nice so it's it's become easier to put things together you know because a good Festival programming should really feel like a good Buffet yes so there's a little bit of everything for everybody but if you eat all these things they're not clashing yeah you yeah worked inp compliment compl ideas are complimentary and you can also just decide I'm going to do two or three on this stage and then I'm going to do two or three on the other stage you know even the idea of being able to build another stage so that it can because then it's a specialist stage at the festival so this is electronic music yes so then you can be like right I want to watch these three bands and then I want to catch this four d and then I want to do some shopping and that's my blanket day okay right so a

49:02 user who is now how how are those Partnerships coming along because you now have Hospitality Partners you have drinks Partners you have how that that's the tough part that's the tough part because even after 16 years I mean you really think that this should be by now like it is overly demonstrable overly demon yeah but also like okay now mute blankets right just assume it was not blankets there's a value proposition there's a user there's there's um a clear business case yes so it should have reduced the mountain that we have to climb agreed so when we find ourselves still climing mountains we're like bro why would you say that the climbing of the mountain is a lack of understanding of the opportunity from the corporate it could be yeah it could be I mean I I I I definitely don't want to speak uh in in blank because there are some who are really like they get it and they they see it and they

50:16 participate at the level that makes sense for them you know and they're locked in but then there's folks who you're like this should be an automatic self for you and they're like no it's no it's not then you see them in other things you know after they're kind of like yeah music is not really our priority then you see them in other things and you know how much money they've put into those other things and you're like first and foremost also no entitlement you know you you put your money where you want to put your money it's your money as as a sponsor it's your money and it's it's your vision and it's your understanding what would be helpful for us is if then there was that kind of like proper feedback about why this is not a good fit then you know is that something that we need to improve or to adjust or is that a thing that you as a sponsor need to improve or adjust

51:00 in terms of your understanding or your expectations of the scene but having said that I can also see that there has been real growth over the years in that space right like more more corporates and also more like different types of corporates hey like in December we had like a like a dental practice that wanted to run an activation at the festival and it's like oh yeah it's true yeah everybody Smiles that's all you do at the festival you're smiling laughing yeah that would be a great place to kind of run a smile campaign right um so that's happening um then we also have like this panafrican corporates you know folks like Spotify or folks like um YouTube who again are very they're very in the center of the culture yes and them being like okay yeah we want to enter and want to participate in in this kind of ways and that's quite cool because then when you're speaking to that sponsor they're

51:53 really meeting us at the level of blankets which is up an African uh you know Festival that has you know roots in Uganda and in Rwanda and you know has the ability to move into other other territories in in Africa so there's something also kind of exciting about finding sponsors who are thinking kind of at that at that um at that level wow so let's wrap up with the future what are the next 15 to 16 years looking like for blankets where do you want put on your which I know is not a problem for you but put on your Dre dream heart again and and let's see where are we going where are you taking us to be honest right now I've reached up I've reached up to 20 years that's that's where that's where I've seen where where are we um and you're even going to start SE this year uh oh really really I am not at Liberty to give you all the information yes but I'd like to put you all on notice

52:55 [Music] fing for some hours excellent excellent so I I see um some of those um properties developing because really we have an East African diaspora excellent the the the the space for blankets and wine to grow is in the east African diaspora um it's and when I say the East African diaspora you have a big East African diaspora in places like South Africa but you also have a big diaspora in places like England in like the states so I see that there yeah Dubai right so I see um um it's our vision that the festival would find it's its natural partners and alignments in spaces where it can serve diaspora because it was always our ambition to export Kenyan music and to really make space for ourselves on a global you know on a global market so that's a thing that I see and then I I definitely see more specialist stages right so this year we will not be adding another stage

53:57 we will be cleaning out and refining the offering of the electronic stage you know just getting it to a really high standard yes it's already doing really well but I think you know there's it's a creative Pro there's all room to Tinker you know what I mean yeah it's kind of like a meal there's you can always add something to make them choose really wow but once that's you know sort of taken off we really want to add um the space for some of the more alternative music that doesn't sit naturally on current configuration of the life stage and wouldn't sit naturally on the electronic stage so I see us bringing in another stage um there and you know just there's a development of like the digital properties you know uh like a blankets radio a thing that allows people to come into discovery of Music excellent uh fairly early so and yeah we have a 20e

54:50 celebration that we've said to think about now like you know it's it's it feels far but it's not actually it's three four years away excellent so think about what does it look like to be celebrating this icon at 20 what does that look like what does the media around that look like and what does the lead up to that and I think the final piece for us is really the connection of blankets to the tourism sector yes because now the truth is there's no reason why we are not importing South Africans into Kenya to come for BL yeah to come for blankets but also to enjoy what's happening in the house in Kenya the house scene in Kenya is A1 it's like if you're going to go to to the amsterdams or to the Brussels to experience some of those big you know um house music festivals just come to Kenya and so to really do that connection and move folks out of Uganda out of Rwanda

55:45 out of South Africa to come here very purposefully for the festival and to enjoy what exists in this music ecosystem so this has been fabulous and our hour has has gone by like that and I've loved it first of all allow me to just give you your flowers and I'm sitting with you you've done a phenomenal job we're extreme you make me so proud you know I sit down and look at something that you're watching from a distance and because uh music and festivals were were an integral part of my early careers absolutely I was always Keen to see what's evolving and the scene blows me away and you a lot of that sits on your shoulders because you have nurtured this thing from nothing yeah when I first met you you were a young girl now you're you're a mother mama somebody and it's great but congratulations than so much very well done so ladies and gentlemen

56:43 that brings us to the end of episode 16 of the African do podcast really fabulous guest and excellent conversation opened our eyes to a lot that's happening in the scene and long made continue long may it continue in fact that that link to tourism I hope someone at magical Kenya is listening and we'll take it take you up on it and start to intentionally curate this absolutely this experience yeah we can drive people to Kenya using the Arts yeah so ladies and gentlemen thank you very much and look look forward to seeing you again in episode 17 thank you [Music]