MTN Bushfire, one of Africa’s leading international festivals, is excited to announce that Camilla George and Blue Lab Beats will be performing at the festival’s 17th edition, to be held between 31 May – 2 June 2024, in the Kingdom of Eswatini.
A conscious celebration of unity in diversity and an inspiring emblem of social inclusion, MTN Bushfire is a diverse, inclusive and family-friendly music and arts festival, taking place annually among the beautiful farmlands and mountains of the Malkerns Valley.
Every year, thousands of festivalgoers from over 60 countries are welcomed for an energising and uplifting weekend, with an eclectic programme featuring some of the finest musical and artistic talents from across Africa and the globe.
Camilla George and Blue Lab Beats’ performances are supported by a dynamic partnership between The Dig and Jazz re:freshed. Celebrating its 20th anniversary, pioneering grassroots jazz organisation Jazz re:freshed from the UK have partnered with South African creative agency The Dig for an unprecedented and trailblazing initiative in Southern Africa.
A multi-faceted non-profit cultural institution, Jazz re:freshed has been at the forefront of the UK jazz scene for the last 20 years, elevating, amplifying and spotlighting the breadth of talented young artists from across the musical spectrum to reach new audiences.
The Dig is a creative strategy agency and platform, leveraging a nation-wide partner network to curate collaborative experiences for the creative community and its enthusiasts. Director Sifiso Gcabashe noted that “the Afrodiaspora connection is an opportunity to create a symbiotic relationship between black alternative music communities in the UK and South Africa, by creating access for curators and artists to build communities and audiences. Jazz re:freshed continues to inspire us with the amazing work they do in the UK and across Europe in creating a home for underserved artists and alternative music communities.”
Camilla George is a visionary saxophonist, composer, bandleader and innovator from the UK. Her strong cultural roots and love of fusing African and Western Music has informed her own unique style, a hypnotising blend of Afrofuturism, Hip Hop and Jazz, with a politically minded subtext that has a powerful connection to her Nigerian identity, lineage and heritage, reflecting African history, culture and slavery.
Consisting of groundbreaking producer, NK-OK, and the formidable multi-instrumentalist, Mr. DM, Blue Lab Beats is one of the fastest-rising production duos in the world right now, with over 50 million streams. The renowned duo recently won a Grammy for their production on Angelique Kidjo’s track ‘Fired Up’ on her Mother Nature LP, which won Best Global Music Album.
“It’s an amazing privilege to add Camilla George and Blue Lab Beats to our 2024 programme. They are artists of the highest calibre, who align with our festival values and aesthetic,” said MTN Bushfire Director Jiggs Thorne. “A big thanks go to The Dig and Jazz re:freshed for this great opportunity for MTN Bushfire to collaborate and grow our extensive network of arts development partners, while supporting arts mobility in Africa.”
For more information on the incredible 2024 line-up and more, please visit the website and follow MTN Bushfire on social media.
Check out how Jazz re:freshed is continuing to break down barriers and open doors all over the world: https://www.jazzrefreshed.com and @jazzrefreshed on Facebook, Insta and X (Twitter). Explore The Dig experience and join the community on www.facebook.com/thedigza and @thedig_za on Instagram
