Fresh and 14k Bwongo working the crowd (Photos by Abubaker Lubowa)
About 7 years ago, Ugandans were talking about a small Club in Wandegeya called Bull Dog. Bull Dog was a small venue that hosted the Purple party annually from 2012 to 2014. The Purple Party was an event started by TV host Douglas Lwanga as a one off event to bring artiste and their fans together. The idea has since been maintained and it has outgrown indoor venues after the last one being in Jinja in Bax Life bar.
Four years later, Purple Party has grown and is now on the Ugandan events calendar thanks to Club Beer that came on board with the aim of supporting Ugandan music Industry. Since their sponsorship, the event has seen it’s four years happening in big venues and last Saturday, they ‘almost’ filled up Kakindu Stadium in Jinja.
Revelers came in as early as 5pm (Photos by Abubaker Lubowa)
Purple Party is known for bringing together almost all Ugandan artistes on one stage regardless of their indifferences. The show in Jinja kicked off as early as 5pm when revelers from the Busoga region made their way to the football stadium where the show was hosted. Most of them were seen rocking purple outfits and other women having purple hair in respect to the theme colour of the event. Jinja people seemed a type that are not so celebrity struck or taken by artistes’ presence on stage.
When artistes like Spice Diana, Nina Roz, Fresh Kid, Levixone and others hailing from Jinja were called on stage, there were no wild cheers to show that they were excited to see them on stage. They looked at them as they performed and left. Only artistes like Fik Fameica, John Blaq, Pallaso, Eddy Kenzo and Jose Chameleone received cheers.
John Blaq being a born and bred product of Busoga, he related well with his people. He commanded his crowd in Lusoga, they felt at home and paid back with a warm reception. The event was hosted by Douglas Lwanga, Mc Kats and Mc Isaac.
(Photos by Abubaker Lubowa)
During other performances, at around 12:30am, one of the organisers was overheard saying Chameleone had just set off from Luweero to Jinja. MC’s tried to buy time for Chameleone who was meant to close the show. They told stories about how Purple Party started and no one believed it would come to a stadium. When they run out of excuses of how far Chameleone had reached, they started bringing random artistes and comedians to the stage.
It was not long until 3am when Chameleone showed up on stage. He took the crowd by surprise and surprising still, they were still in the stadium waiting for him. He performed most of his songs, old and the new that include ‘Hana’, ‘Mateeka’, ‘Champio’n and ‘Superstar’ among others. He left the stage a few minutes to 4am in the morning.