Whilst social media conversations over the event were awash with comparisons between the past and the present, it was a totally different experience, far from the madding crowd for patrons who attended the The Annual Khawa Dune Festival and Cultural festival last weekend.
The Voice entertainment reporter, Sharon Mathala was amongst the hundreds that descended on the dusty, cold village of Khawa for a fun filled weekend of song, dance and tourist related activity.
For the first time after a two- year hiatus organisers of the Khawa event decided to stretch the festivities into a three -day long festivities.
There was also an introduction of new activities like horse riding as well as the Quad and two-wheeler professional race, which is now 500km with the participants doing 250km a day.
Initially it seemed like due to Covid-19 recovering phase, the attendance was going to be bad, but by Friday evening the numbers had increased and by Saturday the crowd had swelled to a crowed that exceeded our expectations and Khawa village was all the rage.
President Masisi and first Lady were expected to arrive on Saturday evening and so they did to the loud cheers of the revelers.
Whilst they were a few ‘uhu’ moments and eye raising comments, President Masisi was received with love on the ground.
For the people of Khawa, it was not about the Khama vs Masisi feud, but about the opportunity to improve their lives, a time for joy and a time to make a few bucks.
Meanwhile the sand dunes were the exciting part of the Dune challenge with big boys racing their big machines across the sand dunes for bragging rights.
Another popular feature was the ‘quad bike stunts,’ which attracted a lot of attention of many revellers who thronged the area.
Notably there were a lot of improvements within the village from the last Khawa event. Apart from receiving ten tents from the Ministry, Khawa village is now paved along the main road to the Kgotla and Government has also erected solar lights in most parts of the village, a great improvement to the village aesthetics and safety