The weekend long just-concluded ‘Wild Roast and Rhyme’ activity came to a wrap yesterday, and did deliver an exceptional COVID-19-safe safari experience to revelers at the magnificent Murchison Falls National Park.
With the events of 2020, roast and rhyme as we know it was put on hold until it’s safe for people to enjoy a concert together. The organizers of the event were quick to adopt to the times and abandoned the old format of the festival concert and re-invented it into a tourism experience of the Murchison falls national park.
The Wild Roast and Rhyme, supported by Bell Lager, provided a commendable engagement aimed at promoting domestic tourism to breathe life back into the tourism and hospitality sector, which have been grappling with the economic effects of the pandemic.
Kicking off on Friday 11th December, the attendees underwent mandatory temperature checks before accessing the transportation, as per the strict MoH guidelines and SOPs. Following this, the organizers issued a free pocket sanitizer and free masks for the 3 days to every guest.
The weekend gateway was heavily sought by a lot of Ugandans but could only allow for 170 people which is within the allowed limits by government. That number further reduced as one or two were not allowed to board the tour bus after registering high body temperatures at the departure point in Kampala.
The guests started their experience on Friday, with ‘The Bonfire Friday’- a laid-back evening around a bonfire featuring spoken word poetry and Hip Hop from one of the pioneers of the Lugaflow genre, the legendary Babaluku and his heavily talented associate, Spyda MC.
Day two of the activities featured a four-hour game drive through the park, which saw attendees take in the beautiful savannah grasslands while marveling at the different species of wildlife that Uganda is famous for.
The game drive also saw Swangz Avenue songstresses, Winnie Nwagi and Azawi, join the tour in what speculators say may trigger the first duet from the two appreciating Uganda’s natural beauty, much like Tarrus Riley’s hit song titled ‘Uganda’.
That evening saw The Wild Roast and Rhyme take place with the usual barbecue experience for the lovers of meat as the attendees were serenaded by an improvised band – different artists who had never worked together before but came together to entertain socially-distanced guests with live performances of classics from great names like Madoxx Ssematimba and Les Wayinka of the Sina Makosa fame.
The afternoon took a surprise turn when serial entrepreneur and Swangz Avenue founder, Julius Kyazze, grabbed a turntable and summoned his disc spinning alter ego – DJ Kyazze – to entertain the guests with a well-executed set.
The evening also featured performances from Azawi and Winnie Nwagi, backed by the live band and saw the emcee, Roger Mugisha, lead the attendees and organizers in bidding a special farewell to Francis Kirabira, the outgoing Bell brand manager, who is taking on a new posting out of the country and is famous for his passion for Ugandan music as seen through the Bell Jamz musical platform.
The last day of The Wild Roast and Rhyme started with a nature walk through the park, with attendees taking in the breath-taking scenery and the wild animals in their natural habitat, led by local guides and the Uganda Wildlife Authority.
The gateway was crowned with an all white Tanqueray brunch at Fort Murchison lodge with live band music and endless flow of Tanqueray cocktails.
Located in North-western Uganda, Murchison Falls is the oldest and largest national park in Uganda located on the shores of Lake Albert and dissected by the mighty River Nile. The park is famous for its rich diversity in wildlife, with 451 bird species and over 76 types of mammals including lions, buffaloes, elephants, hippos, kobs, giraffes and many more.
