
Thousands of music enthusiasts across the country, last Friday December 26th 2014, turned- out in their large numbers to graced the seventh edition of the annual ‘Open Mic Festival’ at a spectacular concert held at the Independence Stadium in Bakau.
OMF, which started as a monthly hood-to-hood street stage show, later culminated into a mega event attracting fans all over. It’s widely claimed to be the Gambia’s biggest music night celebration, and is an event set to tap and bring to the fore, The Gambia’s unseen finest talents.
The event, organised by Black Lynx continues to provide the biggest live platform for recording and performing artistes in the Gambia and has impacted positively on urban Gambian music over the past seven years serving as the blueprint for most local concerts.
It also provides aspiring musicians the opportunity to build their careers and earn livelihoods by pursuing their passion for the art of music. This year’s event was indeed a thrilling one, especially with its rich artistes line that put a captivating predominance’s best expected of them. The inclusion of one of the pioneers of Gambian rap music ‘the Born African’ also added another impetus to the whole set up as fans still remembers some of the old tunes. Songs like ‘Praises, ‘No More War’ and the list goes were sung loud by the accompanying crown, who enjoyed every bit of moment. Also rising stars like the amazing Nyancho, Silky Criss, Royal Messenger, ST aka Gambian Dream, Bai Babu, Gee, Poetic X, Born Africans and Manding Morry were formidable on stage.
It’s also important to note that for the past seven years, the OMF has been built from a state of non-existence and overcoming drawbacks into the biggest crowd pulling musical event in the country, bigger ever than a lot of shows even featuring renowned international artistes.
With multitudes attendees turning up for 2014 event, the event no doubt is a household name in the country entertainment landscape. Suffice to say that the underlying tones of the festival mainly seek to draw attention to our sense of feeling proudly Gambian and simply expressing our Gambian pride through music by staging a world-class event.
OMF, which started as a monthly hood-to-hood street stage show, later culminated into a mega event attracting fans all over. It’s widely claimed to be the Gambia’s biggest music night celebration, and is an event set to tap and bring to the fore, The Gambia’s unseen finest talents.
The event, organised by Black Lynx continues to provide the biggest live platform for recording and performing artistes in the Gambia and has impacted positively on urban Gambian music over the past seven years serving as the blueprint for most local concerts.
It also provides aspiring musicians the opportunity to build their careers and earn livelihoods by pursuing their passion for the art of music. This year’s event was indeed a thrilling one, especially with its rich artistes line that put a captivating predominance’s best expected of them. The inclusion of one of the pioneers of Gambian rap music ‘the Born African’ also added another impetus to the whole set up as fans still remembers some of the old tunes. Songs like ‘Praises, ‘No More War’ and the list goes were sung loud by the accompanying crown, who enjoyed every bit of moment. Also rising stars like the amazing Nyancho, Silky Criss, Royal Messenger, ST aka Gambian Dream, Bai Babu, Gee, Poetic X, Born Africans and Manding Morry were formidable on stage.
It’s also important to note that for the past seven years, the OMF has been built from a state of non-existence and overcoming drawbacks into the biggest crowd pulling musical event in the country, bigger ever than a lot of shows even featuring renowned international artistes.
With multitudes attendees turning up for 2014 event, the event no doubt is a household name in the country entertainment landscape. Suffice to say that the underlying tones of the festival mainly seek to draw attention to our sense of feeling proudly Gambian and simply expressing our Gambian pride through music by staging a world-class event.