Stories to your grandchildren

The thing about standing in a large crowd is that sometimes you get lost. You are just a part of a grey sea of heads. A big crowd makes waves every time. But the people who make a lasting impression are a select few. In years to come, the days and the things you remember about yourself are the days when you stood out in the crowd. The days when you did things that were so out of the ordinary are the days you will remember when you are telling beautiful stories to your grandchildren.

As many who attended Africa Night Tilburg in March will readily tell you, this edition was not the busiest ever. Many of the people will however also tell you that the March edition of Africa Night Tilburg will go down as one of the best ever! When real lovers of music come together and you have 2 deejays on top of their games, there can only be one result. Musical ecstasy! It was magic to see Asians and South Americans go toe to toe with Africans on the dance floor.

Let’s take a pause and tell you the funny story of a West African who was one of the few to have something to complain about during this edition of Africa Night Tilburg. He came in at 23.15 hours and when he saw that the hall was not yet full, came to ask where everyone was and why they were late. Of course we told him half-jokingly that he was not king who his subjects would wait on. If he arrived late, what stops others from arriving even later? Being from the green white green land he of course expects to be the king. So he completely missed the irony. To make the situation more hilarious, he came later (during the magical moments!) to ask when we were going to replace our deejays.

When we asked why, he said people were complaining about the fact that they don’t play enough Nigerian music! Attempting not to laugh in his face, we politely asked who appointed him as the spokesperson for the disgruntled Nigerians. He, without any trace of irony, pointed to his friend standing in the corner. Of course we could not hold back our laughter any more. The whole time that conversation took place the only music being played were from J.Martins, P-Square, Flavour and Bracket in that order! So when we pointed this to him, he replied to our utter surprise that he did not know those were Nigerian songs! His friend did not visit the dance floor either. We always love our Nigerian guests. Trust them to find something to take 20 minutes of your time for!

Back to our main theme, one of the most heard and perfectly legitimate complaints we have heard since we moved to Horeca T Kwadraat is about the lights or too much of it in the hall. That it takes away from the ambiance of the night. (By the way, we are doing our best behind the scene to rectify this). During this edition of Africa Night Tilburg, there was a specially erected, specially lit dance floor. At first we thought this might put off some of our guests. We could not have been further away from reality. It worked like a magnet. What’s more, the special lights gave the whole hall a totally new dimension. We were happy and elated to see people from all over the world take the dance floor hostage.

The night ended with the old Africa Night classic Mwanake, a Kikuyu (Kenyan) song from Wyre & J.B. Maina. Mind you, that song had already been played earlier in the night and the guests went crazy for it and did a special polonaise. When the music was finished as an encore to round up the night almost everyone to a man gave a loud, spontaneous round of applause. To us that was the ultimate stamp of approval for a night full of magical moments. Thank you all. We bow in deep respect!