The whole culture of Oktoberfest originates from Germany, where people would come together and celebrate through a drink.
The celebration that always happened in the last week of september brought together all beer tribes to the party – from branded one to those crafted in people’s homes.
For the past few years, Uganda through the different German institutes in the country have tried to introduce the culture from the binge, beer mugs to the dress code.
Yet, the one that took place at the Uganda Museum over the weekend missed a key ingredient to make it a complete Oktoberfest- the different tribes of beer.
Sponsored by Tusker Lite, there could have been an agreement to have only a limited number brand of beers from the manufactures and more of the sponsoring brand.
This could have not been a problem, in fact, it would have been fine if they had stopped the sale of any local beers but had foreign brands and crafty ones because it is the variety of beer types that qualifies a party as an Oktoberfest one.
Besides the ‘shortage’ in variety of beers, this edition of Oktoberfest may turn out to be the best they have curated in years from activities, crowd engagement to artiste selection.
This particular edition was termed the Divas edition and true to their word, they chose to select only female entertainers for the day; from Sima Sabiti, new soul act Ann Nassanga alias Afrie, Naava Grey, Cindy to DJ Mary Jo, the women kept the audience on its feet.
The day had started with activities that included drinking and eating competitions and other beer tailored sports like running with a full beer jug without spilling any alcohol.
PHOTOS BY MICHAEL KAKUMIRIZI
Unlike the past where all sports were dominated by men, this time there were a number of women that took part in both eating and drinking competitions and did remarkably well.
On stage, none of the performers had not done their homework; while opening for instance, Afrie was little known to many of those in attendance, yet by the time she got into the middle of Yori Yori and later Let Her Know, people were singing along to even lyrics they were not sure of.
But it must have been her closing number, Mulala that won most people as she tickled her piano through it.
‘Sima is good with her mouth’ someone noted before she started performing, they were referring to her skill as a radio presenter and her other skill as a tube fiddle player.
And she got the audience dancing to Radio and Weasel’s Juicy to Chaka Demus and Pliers’ Bam Bam.
As always Naava Grey gave her best with songs like Aliba Omu, Ninga Omuloge and Nteredde but it was Cindy that seemingly had scores to settle, she hit the stage and went through such songs like Selector, Sample Dat, Amateka, Still Standing and Run This City, but the highlight was when all female performers joined Cindy to pay tribute to Aretha Franklin with Natural Woman.
Of course, Mary Jo had the rest of the night fully covered with electronic and house mixes.