The Christmas and New Year festivities are here again, a time when families reunite, bond, make merry, catch fun, hang out, and generally sit around to relax and unwind after working hard through the year. It’s a time when fun-lovers go out in search of fun events and activities to complement the mood of the season.
If you are in and around Edo State this season, you won’t have to be looking for a place to chill as there will be plenty of music, dance, comedy, and other great side attractions. It’s a promise, fingers crossed.
From “Buga” crooner Kizz Daniel to Edo State-born comedians MC Casino, MC Edo Pikin and others, Benin City will be on fun overdrive this season. No dull moment.
For starters, renowned comedian MC Edo Pikin will be ushering in the festive mood with “Mcedopikin Undiluted” on 22 December. So if you are in Benin City and environs, Crown Height Pavilion, 81/83 Country Home Road, Benin City is the place to be this Thursday, 22 December.
It will be five solid hours of fun, laughter and relaxation beginning from 7:00 pm, according to the show organisers. Tickets range from N10,000 to N1 million. Regular ticket for the show being packaged by Davic Empire is N10,000, VIP N25,000, Table for 10 N500,000, and Sponsorship Table N1 million.
Just coming on the trail of “Mcedopikin Undiluted” is a power-packed concert by Kizz Daniel, award-winning singer and songwriter whose “Buga” lyrics took the streets by storm and became some sort of anthem.
The singer, who recently received a plaque from Boomplay, #1 music streaming platform in Africa, after he reached 500 million streams on the platform, will storm Benin City on Boxing Day, 26 December, in a concert tagged “Kizz Daniels Live In Benin”. He will be serenading music lovers with his amazing talent at the prestigious Da Civic Center, Airport Road by Ben Oni Junction, Benin City with several mind-blowing side attractions.
Kizz Daniel, who came into the limelight with his singles “Woju” and “Yeba”, has, no doubt, had an amazing year, and the plaque presented to him by Tosin Sorinola, Boomplay’s director of artist & media relations, at the artist’s sold-out Afroclassic 2022 show in Lagos on 17 December, was a demonstration of this.
Boomplay had earlier in April announced Kizz Daniel as the first artist to hit 100 million project-based streams in less than six months with his fourth studio project “Barnabas”. “Barnabas” has been rated a blistering success, keeping Kizz Daniel on top of charts across the country. He was on the Boomplay Top 100 charts. “Buga”, which featured Tekno, accumulated 1 million streams within 24 hours of release on Boomplay and retained the top spot in Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Togo, Zambia, DRC, Benin and Sierra Leone.
“Kizz Daniel Live In Benin”, being packaged by Regis and Dreamalive Talent Hunt, is co-organised by Peak Rendezvous Entertainment Global Limited and Christo Media in partnership with top media brands Trace Naija and African Magic. The show will not only serve to further shine light the on creativity of Kizz Daniels, “an Uber talented artist” according to Boomplay’s Sorinola, it will also discover new hidden talents through a special talent hunt show.
Early bird ticket for“Kizz Daniel Live In Benin” goes for N10,000, VIP N50,000, Gold table N1.5 million, Premium table N2 million, and Sponsorship table N5 million.
MC Casino Game of Jokes (The Chronicles of a Lamogun Boy) will take the centre-stage on 1 January 2023 at Crown Height Pavilion, Benin City.
The show began four years ago as a way by the multi-talented stand-up comedian, social entrepreneur, content creator, social crusader and master of ceremonies to create his own platform through which to express himself to the world.
“I started doing my own comedy show because it was no longer fashionable to depend on other people’s platform to express yourself to the world,” the father of two told The Nigerian Observer in an interview in Benin City.
“MC Casino Game of Jokes was birthed four years ago. I’ve done two cities in Nigeria. I have done seven countries in Europe. Next year we are doing America. I came back from my Europe tour in August and I am doing the Nigeria edition, Benin January 1st, Asaba June 12,” he said.
MC Casino promised fans that this year’s show will offer the best of fun and entertainment with some top comedians in the line-up.
“This year, my fans will be super excited. Many heavyweights will be there, such as Helen Paul, Seyi Law, Edo Pikin, and a lot of other funny comedians,” he said.
Earlier, there was Comedy Appointment with Mc Obaro, which took place 27 November at Rick Rex Event City. There was Crackers Night with Mc Akpola on 21 December at Grace’s Event & Entertainment Centre, Benin City, and Spring Urban Fest (SUF) which kicked off on 17 December. Other shows in the line-up include Edo/Delta Children Christmas Party (23 December) and Oza Carnival 2022 (28-31 December).
No doubt, Benin City is on the rise to claim a pride of place among major entertainment centres in Nigeria, thanks to Edo State government’s massive investment in the creative sector and support for indigenous entertainers.
“The state government is doing well, not just to promote the entertainment industry, but also to promote their indigenous creative minds, to see how Edo can make an impact in the creative industry,” MC Casino said.
The comedian, who said he derived inspiration from the likes of Basketmouth, I-Go-Die, I-Go-Save and Gandoki in his early days, noted that in the last four years, Edo entertainers and comedians have given everyone a run for their money.
“Everyone is now serious in the industry because they do not know where Edo comedians are coming from. You know, when we do something, people will exclaim, saying our posters are like Lagos posters while some will be wondering if such comedy shows could happen in Edo State. So, we have started enjoying such remarks from stakeholders in the nation’s entertainment industry,” MC Casino said in the interview with The Nigerian Observer.
“In addition, Benin City is now safer compared to how it used to be. There is now way comedy shows can take place in an atmosphere that is not secure. The state government should continue to make Edo State secure,” he said.
