By Neo Kolane
All roads will be leading to Morifi in the Mohale’s Hoek district on April 29 for a three-day event dubbed ‘The Africa Beer and Cannabis Festival’.
The festival will be the first to be held in the country in the rural place of Morifi.
The organiser of the festival, Bokang Kheekhe, told theReporter that the aim of the festival is to activate and promote sustainable tourism in the village of Morifi, Mohale’s Hoek and the entire Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho.
The patriotic Kheekhe said Morifi was chosen as the suitable venue “because it is a key point in world geography as it is the highest lowest point on earth.” The exact point is at the confluence of Makhaleng and Senqu rivers.
He explained the highest lowest point by revealing that the highest point in Lesotho is Thabana- Ntlenyana, the lowest point in Lesotho being Morifi and amongst all lowest points of all countries in the world, Morifi is the highest.
Kheekhe, who is known mainly of organising events, explained that the festival is an outdoor event that will annually attract camping, hiking, quad biking, mountain biking, pony trekking, canoeing and other outdoor adventure activities. It will attract music fanatics, beer and cannabis lovers whereby a products known as connoisseurs and neophytes will be on offer.
“Music will be performed on four different stages; dancehall, hip-hop, pop and local music stages by live acts and under one venue festival. There will be a collection of the best beers produced by breweries across Africa and craft beers from micro-breweries for tasting and selling.
“As a growing industry around the world and in Lesotho, there will be stalls for cannabis products that are already in the market, such as cannabis energy drinks, cannabis infused wines and cannabis infused beers,” Bokang said.
This event is also a factor in rebuilding the tourism sector following the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Bokang the long benefit of the festival is that development of accommodation facilities by individual families and businesses in the area that will embrace the occasion.
He added that the sustainability of these will be brought about by the fact that there will be visitors to the place throughout the year after the “event once people around the world are aware of its existence and know how to get there and what to do while there.”
“With the establishment of the outdoor adventure kiosk, this will be an encouragement to Basotho entrepreneurs to team up with locals from the area and set up restaurants, bed and breakfast offers, lodges and other tourist entertainment facilities.
“In transforming rural Lesotho, the festival, will benefit directly as people visiting during the festival and afterwards will most likely make a stop in town, buy petrol for their cars, consumables to be used while at Morifi such as food and drinks, sleep over in bnb’s around Mohale’s Hoek for those who do not like to camp.
“The country will benefit through collection of toll fees at points of entry into the country from tourists visiting Morifi from outside the country,” Bokang revealed.
Bokang said the geographical key points such as Mount Everest (the highest peak in the world) Kilimanjaro (the highest peak in Africa) Thabana-Ntlenyana (the highest peak in Southern Africa), the Cape Agulhas (the southern most tip of Africa) fall in the same bracket as Morifi and attract tourists all year round from around the world.
He said the event is expected to lure several tourists into Lesotho.
