21 June 2004
Amsterdam Roots Festival
by Charles Hugo, Mon 21 Jun 2004 11:45 pm » Music
The Amsterdam Roots Festival (formerly World Roots Festival) is an annual festival held in June in Amsterdam, which features world music.
On Sunday, the open-air part of the festival was held in the Oosterpark in Amsterdam East. This year there were three South African groups: Jomba Junior a group of high school students from Durban, Zip Zap Circus a "circus school" group from Cape Town, and last not but least the Mahotella Queens from Johannesburg.
The Mahotella Queens play township music from the 80's and earlier. What is amazing is that they started in 1964. All three Queens are around 60 years old, and they are still going strong. They joke that women are much stronger than men, that all the men they've played with have died, but they're still singing.
I have posted a gallery of photos here.
On Sunday, the open-air part of the festival was held in the Oosterpark in Amsterdam East. This year there were three South African groups: Jomba Junior a group of high school students from Durban, Zip Zap Circus a "circus school" group from Cape Town, and last not but least the Mahotella Queens from Johannesburg.
The Mahotella Queens play township music from the 80's and earlier. What is amazing is that they started in 1964. All three Queens are around 60 years old, and they are still going strong. They joke that women are much stronger than men, that all the men they've played with have died, but they're still singing.
I have posted a gallery of photos here.
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