Thousandsof music fans packed the Gicumbi District stadium to watch the Primus Guma Guma Super Star Five (PGGSS5) roadshow on Saturday.   

The show, the eighth leg of this year’s Guma-Guma roadshows, attracted a highly cheerful crowd that saw several contestants get off stage to get a feel of the energy. Unlike previous venues, the conditions were slightly better with clear and sunny skies.  Anita Pendo and MC Tino were their usual chaotic selves and occasionally invited Dj Bissosso to join them on stage to engage the crowd.

Jules Sentore was the first competitor on stage, which served him well as the crowd paid attention, something essential for Sentore’s type of music. He did the Intore dance and folklore chant Gakondo is known for. 

Up next was ‘veteran’ Rafiki who added a new antic on to his list by taking a selfie on stage.  With his experience he effortlessly rocked the crowd with Bagambe and Gikomando. 

The crowd showed they were ready for music and it was no different for TNP who have been enjoying more success out of the competition than in it. Tracy excited the fans when he jumped off stage to join them.

Clad in a Barcelona jersey Knowless, a kind of national darling, got the crowd responding to her performance with vigour. Her voice got hoarse but the crowd didn’t mind.

Not to be outdone by Active , Dream Boys’ dancers pulled off exciting dance moves before the Indatwa (Dream Boys) came up to do their well-known tracks. Active impressed as usual with their performance in basketball gear. 

Bulldogg and protégée Khalifan invaded the stage in army fatigue mimicking liberation war battles, giving the crowd some hip hop fire. Bulldogg, who was nursing a cold, said he couldn’t let down his fans.  Also in army fatigue was Senderi who managed to get the revelers mesmerised by his dare-devil dancers.

Melody, who was introduced by Dj Bissosso, saw thousands of fans sing along to Ntundize one of his hot tracks.

The day was closed by the rapper Oda Paccy who did Rendezvous as she gave the Gicumbi music lovers a perfect sendoff.

Papaoutai, by Stromae, who will soon be visiting Rwanda, was played as the crowd slowly exited the stadium.

Jules Ishimwe said the artistes were now handling the stage better and the fans were getting to know the stage better, while Umwali Ingabire said Knowless and Jules Sentore had lit up the place and thanked the organisers for bringing the artistes to Gicumbi.

Eric Nshuti, the sound system consultant for PGGSS5, said they had received positive feed-back from the artistes about the sound which was a slight challenge because of the wind and large and spacey venue.