Afro Tours is the Brisbane-based touring and management company of Ben Ahern, one of the event programmers at Manifest.
Focusing on electronic and hip hop music within the Australian market, Afro Tours maintains a fresh perspective on the music industry. Ben selects the five acts he can't wait to see at this month's Manifest.
1. Blockhead
All-time favourite beat producer. So stoked I can be in the position to tour him here for a six-date run of dates. He's got heaps of albums released through Ninja Tune and makes a lot of beats for rappers such as Aesop Rock, Murs, Slug, Marq Spekt and many more. We have him playing the closing set of this year's event, which all the Manifest crew have been dreaming of since the first festival back in 2010.2. Ed Solo
As a young teenager I was into a few music genres, but for a bit of time I loved only one, which was breaks. I've seen Ed Solo tear down a dancefloor in Melbourne years back, but been so long and thought, why not? For Manifest 2016! He has new management with Ghetto Funk, who I have been working with, doing some tour stuff for JFB and seeing as though he had to cancel his summer tour earlier this year, he was keen to get out here and play some shows.3. Jamie MacDowell and Tom Thum
Really excited to have Jamie and Tom playing this year. I've tried for years to get Tom on the line-up, but he's usually overseas touring. Added the live show with Jamie as I've heard awesome reports about it and we are able to showcase them for a longer slot than normal; I hope to get some others from the line-up to guest on their sets and vice versa. Tom was raised in Brisbane, so we are familiar with each other and having booked him to do a show years ago with GZA and Pharoahe Monch (dream coming true working with two top-10 rappers IMO)4. Soundfood
Equal parts chef, equal part DJ, Mark J will be cooking a gourmet dinner on Saturday night for the dancefloor on The Blank Canvas stage. This stage will start off with blank decorations and evolve over the course of the weekend into an unknown final piece.5. DJ Total Eclipse
I was watching Andrea Kirwin play one of multiple sets at Woodford Folk Fest a couple of years ago. I look up on stage and, what do ya know, Keith, aka DJ Total Eclipse, from the freakin' X-ecutioners is set-up to the side of the band. He proceeds to jam out with the band for their set, and then performs a ten-minute scratch routine. WTF! From nearby I hear someone else say "oh, he married Andrea's sister, and now lives in Brisbane!" I smiled, beginning already pondering the booking of one of the greatest turntablist EVER!Manifest takes place at Cherrabah Resort 23-25 September.
