Stakes go higher as Doadoa moves to Kampala

In the past, local artistes have had issues with the way Nigerians and South Africans are dominating the continental airwaves like MTV Base and Trace TV.
In their view, since artistes from these countries have the influence and money, they’ve managed to penetrate the continental market because of the airtime given. And that’s where Doadoa comes in.
Doadoa is an East African Performing Arts Market that provides a platform for professional networking and joint learning, bringing together various stakeholders and link people, organizations, businesses, knowledge and technology with a view to create demand and develop a market for the performing arts and unlock the potential of the East African creative industry, making it an important factor for economic, social and cultural development throughout the region. 
Over the past four editions of the market, Doadoa has programmed and connected artistes to bigger things – for instance, when Serabi Band opened the do in 2014, they were little known to many of the people in the audience yet they captured imaginations of everyone.
By the time they finished Sio Lazima, their last song of the night, the delegates from Kigali Up, Sauti Za Busara, Womex and other performance events in Africa and around the world wanted the band at their showcases.
As of now, since Doadoa 2014, Sarabi Band has performed at Sauti Za Busara in Zanzibar, Bayimba International Festival in Uganda, Womex in German and theres a documentary about them in the making.
Unlike the past editions that took place in Jinja, this time round the showcases move to Kampala. The whole market will be happening in three locations, the Uganda Museum, National Theater and Big Mikes.
According to Faisal Kiwewa, the reason to move the market to Kampala was meant to ease everything for the people in Kampala since they had issues of making the long trip to Jinja as well as making it more adventurous for those coming to Uganda specifically for the showcases.
This year the showcases will feature acts from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.
Entenga Drums Music Performers will open the showcases on Wednesday; this will be after a preliminary session with Drammeh Oko, the organizer of the African Music Festival that takes place in London. Other showcases will be by Coca Cola Rated Next’s alumni Kenneth Mugabi, Grace Matata from Tanzania, Uganda’s Apollo Kagimu and Ruyonga among others.
The whole market event is open to the public at shs50,000/= though the public can pay for only the showcases at shs10,000/= each.