JAMAICAN dancehall-reggae artiste, Busy Signal failed to stage his highly-publicised show in Bulawayo on Friday night due to crowd trouble.
BY WINSTONE ANTONIO/SINDISO DUBE in Bulawayo
The show was part of Busy Signal’s two-day concert at the Southern Africa Music Arts Festival.
What appeared to be a promising flawless concert at the Large City Hall car park had earlier featured local artists Sandra Ndebele, Killer T, Calvin and Seh Calaz with appreciated performances.
However, chaos and mayhem soon engulfed the show and left some fans nursing injuries after Zimdancehall sensation Winky D paced off the stage around 1am in protest against what he called “poor sound and technical glitches”.
When Winky D took to the stage, there was pushing and shoving as fans moved towards the stage to catch a closer glimpse of the Ninja President’s performance. However, his performance was shortlived as the crooner complained of poor sound.
“Please Mr Engineer, sort things proper, bear in mind it’s the president in action. We just want to maintain the party, please engineer bear with me,” Winky D shouted, much to the delight of fans who responded by chanting Gafa Gafa.
The crooner felt shortchanged by the sound engineers and disappeared from the stage, resulting in fans throwing missiles.
The emcees tried to calm down the fans and asked them to seek refuge in the VIP arena as the situation had gone out of control.
“Bring back Winky D. Asifuni bumbulu [We don’t tolerate nonsense]” shouted the fans as they threw missiles to the stage.
“Something was fishy around the show. Why was the sound that bad when it was Winky D’s time on stage?” said a frustrated fan who had travelled from Zvishavane.
Show organisers — Y2K Promotions — through their entertainment director Freddy Matenga heaped most of the blame on hooligans.
“The abandonment of the concert was caused by uncivilised people who stormed the stage,” he said.
“I was surprised why people could throw missiles when everything was flowing smoothly. It was not the issue of sound, we got that sound system from one of the best guys in Bulawayo, Freeman, he knows his stuff.”
Matenga said he did not know how many people were injured and the level of damage caused as he was manning the entrance.
Contrary to Busy Signal’s promise that he would come early to the venue before his set to witness some local acts performing, the One More Time hit maker was nowhere close to the venue.