Edito: Invited by the organisers of Rio Loco we arrived at the Connexion Café in the centre of Toulouse where we checked in  and were each given a Zulu love letter to pin on our clothes. The occasion was the inauguration of the build-up to the Rio Loco Festival to be held in Toulouse in June 2010 featuring South African musicians. Before the concert we were treated to a composite mish-mash of excerpts from previous editions. A real teaser this film, with mere glimpses of musicians and sound bits. Our advice to the Rio Loco organisers for their next film, excerpts are fine, but they should let us see and hear  a bit more of each group instead of linking a series of amputated bits together.  Next in line was an award winning animated South African film with Jabberwock type cartoons and fantastic opera singers made by 'the Blackheart gang', but which, truthfully was neither well chosen for the evening nor evocative of South Africa for a French audience. Around us we heard people saying 'c'est amusant' and also 'mais on ne voit pas ce que ca vient faire dans une soirée sud-africain' (don't know what this has to do with South Africa).  Then came the food, well chosen and a pleasant surprise, tasty thimbles of spicy pumpkin, platters of sliced biltong, skewers with fruity sweets and pineapple slices.  This part of the evening seemed to drag on an awfully long time and I must say I got tired of telling the two French people we were with about the evil days of apartheid. The best part of the evening was when the musicians took over and then there was no question at all, THE EVENING WAS A GREAT SUCCESS. We discovered the Sam Tshabalala trio, see more pictures below. Great sounds, beautiful guitar picking with a steady percussionist, beautiful voices and harmonies and the high moment of the evening for myself and Jim Munnick, from Cape Town, perhaps the only South Africans in the place, apart from the musicians, was a beautiful rendering of Meadowlands to which the audience was invited to sing along and did. By the end of the concert most of our party were dancing and only the lack of space and a programmed end prevented the evening from stretching on until dawn.    You can see the festival's blog on last night's event  in French and also listen to some of the trio's music at the Rio Loco blog; Anyway there is no doubt in my mind that if the organisers pick the musicians carefully, as they did this time, the Toulouse public are in for a pleasant surprise in June 2010.   Ian M