A two day music festival with an aim of fighting drug abuse among the youth has been organised by Kigali’s entertainment mogul. The New Times’ Doreen Umutesi interviewed Ever Binamungu, the CEO of Next Entertainment, the event’s organisers.Below are the  extracts: Q: How would you describe Kigali’s entertainment industry?

First of all people here always say that Kigali is boring and that they don’t have a place to go socialise. Even when we go out, in most cases customer service is still poor. I don’t know if it’s the inexperience of the entertainment business owners or it’s just the mentality. Personally, I think Kigali as a fast growing city, in feel that there no enough entertainment.  People need more entertainment but in a disciplined way. 

Our country is growing at a really fast rate, people work very hard throughout the week and they really need to have a place or a way to ease up. Some people can do sports, others go to church while others can hang out with family and friends and socialise to get rid of the stress.

Everyone needs to recharge their batteries before they go back to work.  One can’t work for a full month without having time to relax, at the end of the month one can’t be productive.    Q: You are organising a festival next month, tell us more about it.

It’s a two day music fest codenamed Kesha. It will be held at Amahoro Stadium and Serena Hotel from July 21-22.We invited many artists but the main artist will be Jose Chameleon from Uganda.   He has been in the business for so long and is a great artist.

We chose him because people of all age groups can relate to his music therefore we thought that the best person to spread the message of this festival would be him. Since we also want to promote local artists, many of them will perform at the festival.The main focus of this festival is fight against the use of drugs especially amongst the youth.  Q: Why did you choose to join the fight against use of drugs among the youth specifically?

I used to run a night club in Kigali called, Next, it was a big spot in town and at that time, I got closer to the youth and I saw how the youth reacted to drugs. I discovered that drugs can take control of someone and entirely lose focus in everything they do. As youth we were not involved in drugs but rather smoking cigarettes was seen as stylish. Currently the youth think that to have swag, they are supposed to do drug and have fun.

Despite of the messages they read on the billboards discouraging the use of drugs, we want to reach out to the youth during the festival that one can have fun without involving themselves in drugs. Our main message of this festival is to teach the youth the dangers illicit drugs.

With the different campaigns, we thought it was timely for us to take part in the fight against use of drugs especially amongst the youth. We working in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth and the Police. Q: As a young man investing in the entertainment industry, what are the challenges you are facing?

The main challenge just like any other business is the finances. For example for this festival, I have not yet gotten sponsors and a lot of funds are required to make it a success but definitely I will need to find a solution. Sometimes we have to exchange services to make the cost go a little down thus to make ends meet. Q: Rwanda is continuously becoming a multi-cultural society, how diverse is your entertainment package?

The fact we have a renowned regional artist performing at the festival long as well as the local artist, I think all age groups will feel part of the festival.

Our other initiative is promote local talents. For example DJs are some of the people who are influential in the entertainment industry yet they are not given credited for their work during the festival we are going to unleash some of Rwanda‘s best DJs thus uplift and promote them. Q: If you’re to add something to the entertainment scene, what would it be?

It would be a public place where people can go and listen to music, dance and have fun.  It would be with place for all age groups. I have a big plan to promote the entertainment industry in Rwanda. Q: What message do you have for young people like you who are working towards achieving their dreams?

They have to keep focused on what they want no matter what happens. Sometimes they will face many difficulties but those are lessons to learn from if they are to be successful. They should try their level best not be discouraged if they are to achieve their dream.

They should respect people and the law thus they will live their dream God willingly. We are lucky our country has policies that promote the youth therefore they should use these opportunities.   Q: Rwandan artistes real need to be promoted, how do you suggest they can be helped to go to the next level?

First of all there is need to put in place an institution to deal with the piracy issue. I’m planning to work with artists to put music on CDs and sell it to the people at a favourable price to deal with the piracy problem. People fail to get the music of the artist at a cheaper rate so they end up getting pirated material. We all need to support and promote our artists.