As booking for the Africa Night Cruise surpassed the 500 mark, final plans for the historic Cruise have now been completed. The four-bed cabins are all booked and the only option now in case of any last minute rush is to book the two and one bed cabins. All guests are requested to be at Siljaline headquarters by 17.00hrs (or earlier) to facilitate a smooth check-in. According to details released by the Ritz Society, the Program begins at 20.00 hrs, slightly more than an hour after guests get on board.
The first item on the Program is Dinner at 20.00 hrs although the main action starts at 22.00 hrs, time when the MC will welcome everybody into Club Galaxy. After a brief welcoming note, all Artists performing during the Cruise will be introduced along with Officials of AMF/Ritz Society, the main force behind the Cruise.
The introduction will be brief and at 22.05, the Miss Africa finalists will be presented to the audience. A total of 26 cute finalists seeking to lift the “Miss Africa Scandinavia Crown” will be introduced. They will be in their National dresses and once the audience know and understand whom to look out for, Vumbi Dekula and Band will hit the stage to entertain the audience with some of their most memorable numbers. It has to be noted that during the Cruise week-end, Vumbi will not be available at “Little Nairobi” because he will be booked in the Baltic sea. The Ritz Society sends cool apologies.
The Vumbi show will then be followed by a scheduled all-out dance by Miss Africa contestants who will jump on stage to gyrate their parts in response to African music spilt by Sound of Blackness, the renowned Kenya Disco Crew that is increasingly becoming a house-hold name in Africa-Stockholm. In the “cock-pit” during “Flight Sound of Blackness” across the Baltic Sea will be VJs: Safi and EZ Frank, two gang members who needs no introduction especially to respected members of the “African Party Addiction Caucus” who are familiar with the Stockholms rioting joints that could be named later. Back to the Program…
At 23.59, the mood will change as Club Galaxy is expected to explode into wild ululations in readiness for the Uganda National day which will, for the first time, be celebrated in the Baltic Sea. At this point, there will be a count-down for the historic 48th national anniversary. According to what is known, there will be no shortage of Ugandans in the boat to bring the Independence message right in the boat because a huge number of Ugandans have booked the Cruise and the organizers expect no problem when it comes to the singing of the Ugandan National anthem.
If you are a Ugandan and you will be celebrating this important day in some excluded corner in town, you may as well presume that you will be alone because the whole of what is known as the “Uganda-Stockholm Nation” will be in the Baltic Sea doing their thing in a different kind of style!
“Baddest D-Jeys” in town
Once the singing of the anthem is over, the stage will clear for the all-powerful Ugandan artist, “President Bobi Wine” and company, to get on stage to entertain the guests. The Bobi Wine show will run for thirty minutes then give room to the Kenyan artist, Amani to entertain the crowd. According to reports, Amani has been experiencing problems with her visa application although the matter is being attended to.
African artists are facing serious visa problems to Sweden at the moment. The situation is so serious that all Senegalese artists are officially not being granted visas to Sweden because of reasons that boarder on pure racism and discrimination. For this reason, Titti, one of the most popular Senegalese artists, had to be dropped from the list during the early stages when information from the Swedish Embassy indicated that she wouldn’t be granted a visa to travel to Sweden. The issue of Senegalese artists not being granted visas has been taken up by the Swedish press.
Once Amani leaves the stage, it will be time for the Miss Africa Crown contest to roll on. At exactly 1.00 Hrs, the girls will return on stage with their evening gowns. Apart from the National dresses, the evening gown is part of the package in the competition and the final winner is expected to have staged a good performance in this category. The evening gown display will continue for at least 30 minutes after which Desire Luzinda will surface to do her thing.
The Program is “action-packed” and once Luzinda summarizes her show, the girls will be back on stage, this time in their swimming suits. By then, it is expected that the clock shall have hit 2.00hrs. It is at this time that Kenya-Stockholm’s “Bad boy”, Billy-Boy and G-Raffs will show up to let fans know what they have been up to since the release of “Odiero” and the group’s return from Kenya where Billy launched the “G-Ruffs Takatifu” group. Billy will seal performance by live artists to enable Sound of Blackness to take control of the situation and get guests on their feet well into the morning.
After the disco closes down, there will be no action until 13.00 hrs on Saturday. Naturally, the guests will be tired and trying to “re-collect” so the Program has been designed to get Vumbi Dekula to once again get on stage as the guests takes it easy. The Vumbi show will continue for 50 minutes to open the way for the Grand final of the Miss Africa crown contest. The girls will return on stage to answer questions to enable the Judges to make their final decisions.
The final session with the girls is expected to last for about an hour and once the winner is known, she will be crowned “Miss Africa Crown Scandinavia”. It is at this point when Mrs. Personality will also be crowned. A brief show by local artists who will be in the boat will follow and at 15.50, there will be concluding remarks by AMF/Ritz Society before the event is officially closed. Between 16.00 to 19.00 Hrs, it will be time for sweet “Africa Night Cruise Blues” because the boat will be moving closer to Stockholm city.
Once the boat hits the dock, guests will be free to attend an “Africa Night Cruise after Party” at the Ritz Society Night Club (Malmtorgsgatan 5) where the “Baddest DJeys in town” – Yardy Vybz, Duty P, Slim Gyzz and Dj Patrick will be on time to receive whoever is available and willing to kill any hangovers from the Cruise. The Program will soon be available for download while it will also be distributed at the boat.
Okoth Osewe
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