What - “Kacha Kacha IV”
Where - Metropolitan Hotel – Colombo 11
When - July 10 2016
 
If you remember, WTF did a feature on the last “Kacha Kacha” and the closing of the beautiful Castle Hotel where we caught up with the man behind this amazing concept - Imaad Majeed.  

He said, "Having said a difficult goodbye to the lovely venue that was Castle Hotel, I was lucky enough to find out that a friend of mine was recently appointed Manager of a bar that is owned by his family in Pettah.”

This place was super hard to find, ONLY for me, as the person who gave me the directions to the location clearly did not know what he was saying. But it’s actually very easy to find, and it is a nice way to highlight new, small places, and bring some music and dance to it!   

Speaking to me about the new location, Majeed said, “Like Castle which was once a printing press, it just seemed fated to be. So I started crowd funding for the gig and got everything in order. We had some hiccups with one of our sponsors pulling out at the last moment, which racked up some unexpected costs, but our crowd funding efforts have been pretty strong. I was able to raise Rs 35,000 within a day, with Rs 15,000 raised in 30 minutes on Facebook. So, it feels great to be able to keep this ball rolling.”

This time the KK brand featured bands for the first time. 

“Dis Patties Ba Ba” is a unique and quirky band that has a great sense of humour and really benefits from not taking themselves too seriously. They thoroughly entertained the crowd. You know everyone is having a good time when people with sarongs don’t care what might fall off when they dance. 

With numbers like "oya sexy naaa, mama katha naaa", “Local”, the Sinhala rock band, brought a lot of energy to close the show, with a dozen or so dancing uncles rocking out up front. They are part of a new age of Sinhala music that is abandoning the Hindustani raaga influence in favour of a Western sound. 

They also had their second ever female performer, Shanell Wijayaratne, which was also a treat. She is a super talented youngster who came on a holiday. Her voice is remarkable and I love with a rich tone to it.  Speaking to me she said, “I’m happy that there are projects like these to bring out new talent!”  

They hope to do another show in October and move to a new venue, and further explore Colombo, having now covered Slave Island and Pettah.

I’m so happy that WTF can feature cool initiatives like these. We will keep you informed about the new location soon – follow us for more details. 

Today on WTF 

Hair and make-up – Capello Salon 
Transport Partner – Pick Me 
Photographs and Video by – You’re my Favourite 
Outfit – Jump