Violence has no place in showbiz

13 Aug, 2017 - 02:08 0 Views
Violence has no place in showbiz

The Sunday News

no-violence 

Raisedon Baya

LAST week the supposedly “biggest show of the year” turned out to be the biggest sham as violence reared its ugly head and marred everything. When a show that big ends up abandoned artistes and promoters must really be worried. The Sama festival featuring Busy Signal, Busiswa, Windy D and others was billed as possibly the biggest live musical show in Bulawayo for the year 2017. For the whole week before the show the entire city was excited.

Dancehall fans were particularly over the moon. Frankly speaking, Bulawayo has hosted big musical shows before and these shows have gone like clockwork, smooth and peaceful. The Kalawa Homecoming shows have seen some of the biggest crowds in Bulawayo but not even one of them has been abandoned or disrupted by crowds. So what really caused the violence at the Busy Signal Show? Was it the ‘‘type” of crowds or poor organisation or there was a hidden hand that really didn’t want the show to go ahead?

As we hit our brains and scratch for answers let us remember that this violence and crowd disturbance happened barely a few months after the Bulawayo City Council banned noisy shows at the Amphitheatre. So if City authorities can ban shows because a few residents complained about noise during the night shows at Amphitheatre what more for violence and crowd disturbances that happen in the middle of the city and threaten all businesses near the venue? In all honesty, the City Hall Car Park is the best outside venue in Bulawayo central business district (CBD). The venue is central and accessible to all — mobile and non-mobile music fans. And before it became the venue of choice for many music promoters the City Hall Car Park has always been the home of Intwasa Arts Festival’s music shows — a concept borrowed from other cities around the world of turning public spaces into performance venues.

This has worked well for the festival with no violence or crowd disturbances being witnessed for the past 12 or so years that the festival has hosted events there. One shudders to think what would happen if city fathers were to wake up tomorrow saying NO to any public performances at the City Hall Car Park. Bulawayo artistes and promoters need to protect this space as a performance space and that protection starts with all denouncing the violence that took place at the Busy Signal show.

While a lot of things might not have gone according to expectation or plan; gates opening at 10pm instead of much earlier because, according to sources close to the organisers, there were no wristbands, non-availability of advertised artistes — Tocky Vibes never came on stage after being called for more than 30 minutes, poor sound — as most, if not all, local artistes had not done sound check prior to the show, and lastly, headliners being programmed too late into the night. These and other factors contributed to the violence and crowd disturbances that night.

However, Bulawayo people must know that the biggest loser in all this was Bulawayo. First, the people that paid to see Busy Signal and Busiswa never got to see these two artistes on stage. Secondly, the damaged property and looted goods belonged to Bulawayo people and businesses. Thirdly, Bulawayo was left with a soiled reputation of being violent. At the moment the city cannot afford to be labelled violent as this is bad for business. Any business. Violence has no place in show business. It chases away investors, big artists and even paying audiences. What needs to happen now is Bulawayo artists, promoters, and law enforcers coming together and denouncing, in very strong terms, the violence that took place during the ill-fated Busy Signal show.

On a more positive note, Arts Focus would like to congratulate Delta Beverages, particularly their Chibuku Brand for once again bringing the National Finals of the Chibuku Neshamwari Traditional Dance Festival to Bulawayo. Thank you Bulawayo for proving you are capable of hosting national events. And hearty congratulations to Ezimnyama Dance Ensemble for scooping the first prize of $7 000. Sithi Halala!

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