Launched last year, Casa BACARDÍ, a celebration of the brand’s Caribbean roots, encourages consumers to express themselves freely by giving them a platform to keep doing what moves them by exploring a variety of different genres and experiences.

This year, the platform witnessed performances by Nash Jr, O.G. SHEZ, DJ Proof, BLOT!, Paloma, Emanuel, and Raghav Meattle, who gave audiences major beach-party feels with their unique sets. Hosted on two stages, against beachy visual backdrops, consumers grooved to modern adaptations of unique genres like dancehall, afrobeat, baile, house, and techno. Among the artists who performed at Casa, we had Zokhuma who not only energized the audience with an exciting performance but also gave some interesting insights into the virtual festival and a lot more.

Check below.

How was your experience working with Casa BACARDÍ for a virtual performance?

Simple and easy! The platform on Lemonade Social for Casa BACARDÍ @Home was well designed and fun to use. It was a great opportunity to try something unique and continue doing what moves us, despite these challenging times.

Thoughts before performing for Casa Bacardi?

Casa BACARDÍ is a great platform to perform at, with the whole Caribbean vibe being brought alive and coming together of multiple artists. It was amazing to have people dancing around at last year’s edition and I wish that could have happened this year too. Nonetheless, it’s great that it took the music, dance and mixology to people’s homes, and was able to drive human interactions and engagement, at a time when we need it the most.

Gigs are all going virtual and so did Casa Bacardi. What would you like to say on this entire ‘going virtual phase.’

I prefer performing on-ground as that allows a platform to meet and vibe with the audience. The performance also becomes much better when you’re engaging with the fans directly and getting live feedback. In that sense, this ‘new normal’ is an adjustment and in my opinion, just a temporary phase. It’s not here to stay.

Future of the music industry ahead of this pandemic.

I can’t speculate anything in the current scenario however I wholeheartedly hope that we collectively appreciate artists and musicians, and value outings as well as human interactions more, post-COVID.

How did you spend your lockdown period? What did you do?

I continued making music and joined the bandwagon of lockdown activities by binge-watching shows and playing video games. I also utilized this time to bond with family and friends and took some time for myself with exercise and therapy. 

Any challenges you faced during this period?

This is a challenging time for everyone and it’s been equally tough for me. Especially, as an artist, it’s difficult to stay positive as a major chunk of the monetary support depends on live gigs. And human interaction is so crucial to keep one sane! Like everyone, I’m trying my best to work in these changed times. This has been a huge lesson in not taking anything for granted, and I’m grateful for the love by all fans and brands like BACARDÍ that continue to support artists with newer avenues and platforms.

Upcoming projects.

There are a couple of interesting releases and remixes in the works. Keep an eye out, I’m absolutely looking forward to bringing these to the audiences!

BACARDÍ brought alive it’s experiential platform Casa BACARDÍ as a virtual festival last weekend, that got over 4000 people join in digitally. Hosted on 10th October, 4 pm onwards on Lemonade, it brought the Caribbean to audiences homes through performances, workshops, dancehalls, mixology, and more!