“You don’t know, you may never know” that Nativeland Festival has the largest gathering of millennials — with high purchasing power — in Nigeria. More than any other show. There are no official numbers yet, but the audience will be running into tens of thousands. Unless you attend one of the editions, you may continue to never know.
The most exciting thing about Nativeland Festival is its burgeoning generation Z audience. What started out as a musical gathering for Nigerian millennials is now accommodating the next generation of Nigerian music audience.
These audience are not passive at all. They are active participants in the consumption of music. The future of Nigerian music is dependent on the enthusiasm of this new, rising audience. That is to say, Nigerian artists now have a frontier audience to appeal to.
At any rate, artists and intending artists should study clips of Nativeland, especially the Nativeland 2018 to have an idea of what makes this new generation of audience tick.
Filterfree Nigeria was at Nativeland 2018, which happened at Muri Okunola Park in Victoria Island, Lagos. And here are the 5 things we learnt from the experience:
Nativeland Owns The Millennial & Generation Z Audience
It is not the number of people that matters. It is the quality of the people. But when both are present, this is an advantage. Nativeland has both the quantity and the quality. So, for example, as an advertiser, you will get your return on investment if you put your money on Nativeland Festival. Asides the purchasing power of Native’s audience, they have a huge amount of next generation of “users”. For a marketer, this festival is a fertile ground to include in campaigns. So, December 2019 is not too far away.
https://twitter.com/NativeMag/status/1078909502920015872?s=09
When It’s Time For The Zanku, There’s No Shepeteri-Premium Dichotomy
People say Islanders are not ideal concert goers: they’d just sit down and press phone. At Nativeland 2018 it is not so. The crowd were always hyped when the jam hit them exactly where they wanted. You would think these audience will not be ready to stain their whites. But when “Able God” came up, these premium audience started stomping, every-damn-where!!
It is worthy of note that, they also, unsurprisingly did the Milly Rock, Shmurda dance and others when those songs came up.
When that @ChinkoTiger “Able God” drop hit the crowd at #Nativeland2018, and everything got lit #NeverForget pic.twitter.com/tNapRRG6sW
— The NATIVE (@NativeMag) December 29, 2018
D’Banj Still Has The Magic
D’Banj’s performance was the highlight of yesterday’s show. He brought 2 dancers with him and still overshadowed the dancers. Such wizardry. He performed some of his old songs like “Suddenly”, “Oliver Twist”, “Fall In Love” and the more recent “Emergency”. He held down the audience through out his set. Yes, and more phones were up recording and dancing during the Koko Master’s set than anyone else’s set.
Important note: D’Banj brought his own DJ for his set and they totally killed the set together. Talk about preparedness!
https://www.instagram.com/p/Br93ptJHJsb/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=179nr0mn7jdvx
Teni Is 2018’s MVP!
Online love is sometimes regarded as not real. But the love people have for Teni is insane! The audience were totally on the same page with the singer, singing along to her songs, “Askamaya” and “Case”. The singer’s set was short, but the love she received was enough to last her three or more shows — even if she didn’t do anything.
https://twitter.com/NativeMag/status/1078913453459419136?s=09
“DJ, play track two” Can Actually Work… If The Artist Sabi De Ting
All the performers at Nativeland 2018 performed to the DJ’s. No performer performed with a live band. If one looked at it again, you can’t point to one boring set. Very impressive! The artists deserve a round of applause for their various sets.
Bonus
It will make sense if Santi and DO provide post-release support for their music. For example, they can do lyrics video or make the lyrics to their projects available online. Many people want to sing along, but they end up chopping mouth. The chopping mouth bit is an eagerness of the fans to be able to say “yes, I can sing this song”.
—
Nativeland 2018 left wonderful memories in the mind of music lovers who attended the show. While they had a shortcoming with time and no show of Wande Coal and Burna Boy as advertised, the show was spectacular. None of the shortcomings were enough to overshadow the delightful experience the audience had.