Every year on June 16, South Africans commemorate Youth Day to remember the 1976 students who fought for equal rights at their schools during the Soweto Uprising.
In remembrance of those students, for the past 11 years, Constitution Hill has hosted Basha Uhuru Freedom Festival for the current youth of South Africa.
“We are proud to host the 2023 Basha Uhuru Freedom Festival back at full scale as Conhill’s flagship Youth Month Event. Over the years, Basha Uhuru gave birth to The Creative Uprising – an always-on programme, including the Creative Hub that opened in 2020.
“Focused on development, collaboration and upskilling creatives, the work of the hub will help grow and support the creative economy in Gauteng,” says Constitution Hill CEO Dawn Robertson.
This year, the week-long festival will start with the ‘Creative Week’ from June 21 - 23, followed by the Sounds of Freedom, known as the Basha Uhuru Festival, on June 24.
Makers, artisans, craftspeople, illustrators; entertainers; artists and digital designers are all members of the Creative Uprising and will be participating in the Creative Week, exchanging ideas, sharing their talents and learning more about mastering their crafts.
Each day has a particular creative focus offering master-classes, panel discussions, workshops and dialogues. For the first time, people can choose to purchase tickets for each of the days or the whole week, allowing them to select sessions more relevant to their interests.
At the Sounds of Freedom 18 acts are expected to perform. Some local stars who will be performing include Shekhinah, Kwesta, Ms Party, Boujeena, Brown Sugar; Lyndow Radebe, Mam'Thug, SweeterBrown and more.
There will also be a curated market offering a selection of handmade local goods, art exhibits, designer wear and loads of unique and new offerings.
Kirsty Niehaus, Nando’s marketing manager, says as a proud partner of Basha Uhuru, they are committed to creating market access for young artists, designers and musicians and democratising creativity by opening it up to more people.
“This year, we're fired up to bring Shekhinah to the Basha main stage and to share her journey and insights with festival-goers during the creative conference. We will also be showcasing some of our home-grown emerging talents - the Nandoca Uhurus (from our internal music talent search) - on the market stage. It's going to be a great celebration of local music talent,” adds Niehaus.
There will also be food stalls as well as the Sol Bar.
Tickets start from R150 at Webtickets and the concert is not open to people under the age of 18.