By Gracious Mugovera

LOCAL artistes lined up for the Lion Lager Summer Festival held last weekend at the Glamis Arena in Harare showed maturity in their performance.
Dubbed the ‘Battle of East versus West’, the summer festival saw locals coming tops and winning the hearts of revellers.
Winky D, King Shaddy and Guspy Warrior were the artistes given the opportunity by Delta to represent Zimbabwe and shared the stage with Ugandan Bebe Cool (Moses Ssali) and Nigeria’s D’banj.
Full of confidence, the three dancehall artistes gave a sterling performance outshining the main act D’banj.
Representing the young artistes in the country, the three proved and showed an appreciation of fans and delivered value for money performance.
And in what has become the norm, the Ninja president delivered a breathtaking performance that left fans begging for more.
During his allotted time, Winky D dished out his popular tracks that saw multitudes singing along.
The night simply belonged to him and he was fully prepared for it.
His stage work and attire complemented his flawless act.
Last year he wore a boxing outfit as he displayed antics of the ninja warrior and this time around was decked in a tuxedo.
Winky D not only delivered his well-known tracks such as ‘Musarove Big Man’, ‘Mafirakureva’ ‘Ninja Saturday’, but also played his new songs sending the crowd into a frenzy.
It is through his music that Winky D has distinguished himself from other artistes.
Through his lyrics he has not only entertained, but is sending crucial messages to society.
The night definitely belonged to the Zimbabweans as King Shaddy and Guspy Warrior also delivered flawless performances.
Revellers sang along and danced to Guspy Warrior’s hits ‘Seunononga’ and ‘31 October’.
Uganda’s Bebe Cool tried his best, but was unfortunate because the crowd had little or no knowledge at all of his music.
The much hyped D’banj was a huge disappointment to the revellers who expected more from him.
Apart from his poor performance, people’s knowledge of his music boiled down to two of his tracks ‘Oliver Twist’ and ‘Fall in Love’ and the rest of his delivery did not appeal to the people.
The booing and whistling from the crowd clearly showed that D’banj was nowhere near the star that he claimed to be.
Obviously, Zimbabweans appreciate artistes that they are more familiar with and whose music they can sing along to.
Despite being labelled as the worst summer festival, sponsors of the event, Delta expressed satisfaction with the show.
Patricia Murambinda, Delta’s marketing manager said the event had been well organised.
“This year’s Lion Lager Beer Festival was a huge success in terms of the flow of everything, organisation and the performance of all the artistes was above bar,” said Murambiwa.
The festival is now in its fifth year and international artistes such as Bennie Man, Fantan Mojah and P-Square have graced the event.
This year Delta introduced the Lion Lager Campus activations which served as a build up to the Lion Lager Summer Beer Festival.