Rocky Dawuni’s Independence Splash 2002

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By Cary Sullivan

The second annual "Rocky Dawuni's Independence Splash," celebrating Ghanaian Independence Day, was held March 5 & 6, 2002 in Accra, Ghana. The event was expanded this year to include two concert events; the first took place at the National Theatre in Accra on March 5 which went live nationally on Ghana TV to an estimated audience of 10 million viewers. The second show was at Accra’s Labadi Beach on March 6th attracting over 30,000 Rocky Dawuni fans! Other artists featured on the bill in 2002 included Ghanaian music sensation Amandzeba Nat Brew, Hip Life crews Akasakyerema and Obour, traditional folk group Dzembi and emerging modern griot, Baba Anokeri.

Africa's fastest rising Reggae star, Rocky Dawuni, founded the festival in honour of his native Ghana, which was the first African nation to achieve independence from colonial rule in 1957. Rocky's song "In Ghana" has become the unofficial national anthem of his homeland. The concerts have been organised under the auspices of Aquarian Productions, which is an offshoot of Rocky Dawuni's Aquarian Records.

Rocky has established a non-profit organisation, AfricaLive!, which aims to get musical equipment into the African school system, beginning with Ghana. AfricaLive! also hopes to make musical and recording equipment available and affordable to the many musicians in Ghana who don't have access to equipment for recording, as well as for live concerts. AfricaLive! presented the 2002 version of "Rocky Dawuni's Independence Splash" with a percentage of proceeds from the event going to funding this program. AfricaLive! is modeled after VH1’s "Save the Music Program."

Rocky, along with his managing partners of Aquarian Productions, envision this event as becoming the "Sunsplash of Africa" in celebration of Africa's tremendous contribution to music around the world. They plan to expand the festival each year to bring in more international artists, as well as fans from around the world.

For more information, MP3’s, music videos, live concert footage, etc on Rocky Dawuni, please check out www.rockydawuni.com