Rapper Fefe Busi, one of the headliners, had a brilliant performance that got most revelers engaged. On the right, one of the festival reveler bites into a rolex. PHOTOS BY LAWRENCE OGWAL.
Over the years, the cuisine of eggs omelette and vegetables rolled in a chapati, also known as rolex, has continued capturing the imaginations of foodies across the globe. At one point, it was listed in world magazines as one of the foods globe trotters had to try out. Today, this snack has a festival dedicated to celebrating its uniqueness.
In Uganda, rolex may not necessarily mean a watch! In fact, you may find that the watch brand Rolex is not as famous.
Instead, it is a snack of eggs omellette and vegetables rolled in a chapatti. Yesterday, the annual Rolex festival took place at the Lugogo Cricket Oval and as you could imagine, Kampala came out in even bigger numbers.
It was the fourth edition of one the festivals most Ugandans believed was not going to see an anniversary; for many, it was laughable to have a celebration dedicated to an aspect of Ugandan foods.
Yet, three editions later, Ugandans had bought into the idea that much that the previous location, the Ugandan Museum grew small for the crowds that always turned up – this year, the organizers moved to a bigger Lugogo Cricket Oval.
Initially, the Rolex Festival was a tourism idea hatched by Enid Mirembe while a contestant in the Miss Tourism annual pageant; “idea was to promote food tourism; rolex is a food that unites us,” she once noted in an interview.
The festival this year attracted a bigger number of exhibitors that included Kenyan, Indian and South African chefs; all these had their own take of the rolex, some made it with beef while others were making it with chicken and more spices than the ordinary roadside one many are accustomed to.
This year entrances were jam packed by 10am and by midday, most of the tickets were sold out. Performances at this year’s edition came from Fefe Busi, Sheebah Karungi and King Saha who was the headliner of the event with the comedy duo of Madrat and Chiko.
Ugandans are very political and thus politics did not stay out of this festival as some chefs chose to create customised rolex brands with names like Our Power or Yellow Bus.
After King Saha’s performance DJ Andre took to the decks and kept the crowd entertained till 10:00pm as the revelers left at lesuire.