When the two-day main event of OktobaFest 2024, scheduled to take place this week on 26-27 October, was canceled earlier this month, there were mixed reactions on social media. Several revelers questioned why the event had to be canceled at the last minute.
Instead, the main sponsor of the music, art, and cultural festival, East African Breweries Limited (EABL), through its flagship brand Tusker, announced that it would replace the main festival with mini-shows in various regions in the country.
The announcement of OktobaFest’s cancellation raised legitimate questions, given the hiccups experienced at yet another EABL-sponsored event that had just ended the previous week.
EABL’s spirits brand Johnnie Walker had just sponsored its annual Walker Town festival, which didn’t go down well as expected with sound problems the main undoing on the second day, when American singer Lauryn Hill was due to perform.
Those who voiced their opinions on social media, many argued that the cancellation of OktobaFest had everything to do with the earlier gaffes witnessed at Walker Town, which prompted the organizers to offer full refunds for day two tickets.
But speaking candidly to Nairobi News in Kisumu over the weekend at the Da Club Place mini-show where Bensoul delivered an hour-long stellar performance to a mammoth crowd that included Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna, Tusker marketing manager Christine Kariuki dismissed the analogy.
Was the cancellation of the main Oktobafest Festival a consequence of what happened at the Walker Town Festival?
The decision to deconstruct the main festival into mini-festivals was to open up access to the festival to more of our fans across the country. We recognize that Oktobafest is an important calendar event for our fans in Nairobi, so we have ensured that even though we are opening up the festival to the rest of the country, Nairobi still gets Oktobafest experience every weekend spread across the city.
Replacing the main event with mini-shows, does it offer the same experience as that of curating a festival?
Tusker Octobafest has grown over the years and we believe now is the right time to open it up to even more people across the country. We’re reimagining Octobafest from one big moment to many moments.
Is this the new plan for the future, to have mini-shows all over the country instead of one festival?
Oktobafest is an annual festival. The format of the festival may be different each year, but we remain committed to providing a platform to celebrate our beer and culture each year.
Last year’s festival featured acts from East Africa, will there be such acts at this year’s mini-shows?
As Oktobafest is an annual event, each year is an opportunity to take a different approach to our execution to give our fans a new experience every year.
This year’s festival came at a time when the Kenyan entertainment scene had grown exponentially and we saw more Kenyans consuming a lot of local content, which informed our decision to have an all-Kenyan Oktobafest. This is not to say that you will not see more East African acts at future Oktobafests.
So far, six Oktobafest mini-shows have taken place across the country in Nairobi, Eldoret, Juja, Thika, Nanyuki, and Kisumu, with four more scheduled for Saturday this weekend in Kiambu, Ngong, Ruaka, Karatina and Mombasa.
