As the minutes ticked towards 4am, revellers in Masaka Town stayed put, shouting chants, dancing and rhythmically responding to Jose Chameleone’s energetic and engaging stage performance.
He was the headline act at the Club Mega Fest at Edward Avenue in Masaka Town, Saturday night. It did not matter that it was chilly, and that the third edition of the street fest had gone on for hours. The exhibition of loyalty could not be underscored. Chameleone was jovial, and did it live as Blessed Band backed him up for well over an hour.
Well, his performance preceded that of Jamaican singer Nyanda who was a bit of a stranger to the crowd save for the minutes she performed Love is Wicked, the song she did under the Brick & Lace duo, before she went solo. Locals kept low for much of her performance as the singer, dressed in a black net, see-through outfit did her songs like Slippery When Wet and Trouble.
By the way, it was not an all-Masaka affair. The crowd also had revellers from Kampala, including the guest of honour, Prince David Wasajja, who watched the show till the final performance. There was socialite Meddie Ssentongo, businessman SK Mbuga, politicians Alintuma Nsambu, Uganda’s ambassador to Canada and Herman Ssentongo, the former Sembabule LC5 chairman, who announced he would be making a comeback to active politics come 2016.
All these were targets of the emcees, who openly begged for money from them. Mbuga and Nsambu dished out dollars to the chaps, creating excitement. Revellers also paid for music mix CDs by deejays Slick Stuart and Roger, who were guest deejays at the club beer sponsored gig.
In the crowd were a happy and jovial people, particularly in the VIP. Among them a couple who turned up dressed in wedding attire. They outdid themselves dancing all night.
Some of the night’s outstanding performance included Buchman, who the emcee introduced as Ssenkulumandwa. The former Vice President of Firebase Crew did not just excite the crowd with his dance antics, he also used foul language, throwing F words at deejays who were not playing songs he had asked them to. Gravity Omutujju, Leila Kayondo, Big Eye, Irene Namatovu and husband Geoffrey Lutaaya, Rema Namakula and a host of other acts from Kampala and Masaka performed.
Meanwhile backstage Robert Nkuke, of Mutima Entertinment, the organiser of the show, was haggling back and forth with singer Bobi Wine who eventually did not perform. When it was all done, revellers walked home, some of them tipsy and excited, comparing who had performed better.
PHOTOS BY MICHAEL KAKUMIRIZI
rbatte@ug.nationmedia.com