They said it couldn't be done and that no one would come, but that kind of attitude just makes Sharon push ahead even harder. So she rehearsed the members from each of the different Racial and cultural groups in their 9 respective, separate areas for months - only finding a way to bring them all together 1 week before the show. 

By the time the curtains opened on May 16, 1993, high-ranking officials from every political party including the ANC Chairperson and the King of the Zulu people were in the audience! And the Fire Marshall's regulations on seating capacity had to be waived as thousands of people from every walk of life clamored at the doors to get in. With people sitting in the aisles, on each other's laps, and rubbing shoulders for the first time across the color boundaries, Sharon and her company performed to thunderous applause. It was the show Nelson Mandela called his "vision of what the Rainbow Nation could look like in a democratic, nonracial South Africa!" 

In the newspapers the following morning, the critics heralded its astounding success, and one went so far as to say that "if pens had been distributed instead of programs, the country's first Peace Accord could probably have been signed last night!" 

Joseph Shabalala, - leader of the Grammy-award winning group Ladysmith Black Mambazo that performed with Paul Simon on the "Graceland" album, and the man who had encouraged Sharon so strongly to come back home - was also in the audience opening night and was transfixed by the concert. By the second night, he was on stage singing along with Sharon's group. So it was no surprise when he agreed to have his group join Sharon when she took the production on the road - or should we say on the rails - throughout South Africa. 

THE PEACE TRAIN was born!