WIZKID LIVE IN ZAMBIA CONCERT
It is every promoter’s dream to deliver to the people a fun filled concert and at the same time it is every promoter’s nightmare to wake up to what we woke up to this morning, not that we slept at all or have been sleeping since we started this campaign.
When we decided to host this show in Zambia, the dream was purely born from our desire to bring world-class entertainment into Zambia and try to expose Zambian entertainment to the world. Our budget was relatively astronomical (in the Zambian Sense) of course from the hiring of the artist, to advertising, hire of Venue, lighting and stage, sound system name it all. Our strategy was to go on an all out campaign and reach everyone with the love and passion for music and events such as this, which to some extent we did. But looking back, we probably miscalculated a few other things such as the difficulties our people are facing. There was a public outcry when we announced our pricing but then we looked at the amount of investment required to put up such a show and those prices were the most economical we could come up with if we were to sustain the hosting of the event.
Going back to last night, we believe we did everything we could to host a successful show. WIZKID eventually arrived in Zambia and gave his best performance for a decent length of time, though at the time the fans had been restless and exhausted. However, the problem wasn’t his alone nor ours alone. He had a show in Seirra Leon on the 28th of April 2016 and needed to either return to Lagos on the Morning of the 29th of April and proceed to Lusaka and arrive on the morning of the 30th of April 2016. To achieve that, we required availability of commercial flights between Freetown, Seirra Leon and Lagos. However there were none on the 29th. The only available option was Kenyan Airways which was leaving in the evening of the 29th and arriving in Zambia at 18hrs on the 30th of April 2016 when the show should have been kick starting. This was viewed as a risk by ourselves and after careful consideration and discussion with his management and the promoters of the Freetown Show, we decided to charter a private JET from Lagos to Freetown and back, and proceed with a commercial flight from Lagos to JHB and again a private charter from JHB to Lusaka. Unfortunately and due to circumstances beyond our control, 3 of the WIZKID management including himself, missed the Lagos to JHB flight.
When we heard the news we were naturally gutted and devastated . We never slept and were on phone trying with his management to hire an emergency private charter from Lagos to Lusaka. Of course we also had an option to cancel the show and refund ticket holders, re- schedule the show to another date or find alternative means to bring him to Lusaka. Eventually we found an alternative however, when he should have landed at 5AM on the 30th of April 2016, in JHB, the only available flight was landing late. As he landed the private charter was already positioned and ready to take off. He eventually landed in Zambia in the early morning of May 1 2016.
Looking back we did what we could to make the show a reality. There are those of you who bought VIP tickets. The alcohol for the AWP is still intact and we are trying to find a way and date to host it exclusively for you. To all those with tickets but left the stadium before the artist’s arrival, WIZKID and the stadium are ready to for us to re- host the show this afternoon, considering we started late. However we shall inform you as soon as possible the way forward.
We whole-heartedly apologize for any inconvenience. A great man once said and we quote:
There is pride in being the man in the Arena
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
