adminBongani Ndlovu Showbiz Correspondent
BULAWAYO nightspots on Saturday night cashed in on the commotion and chaos at the gates during the Kalawa Jazzmee Homecoming party as they recorded a sharp increase in attendance by patrons.Long winding queues were the order of the night during the annual party at Queens Sports Club, with some frustrated people opting to miss the show and go to different night spots dotted around the city.
Some night spots doubled their cover charges as they realised hordes of people were coming to their drinking spots.
Organisers failed to have a separate entrance for those who had paid and had tags and those who wanted to enter the VIP and the VVIP enclosure from those who wanted ordinary tickets.
Everyone had to line up in one entrance as the organisers failed to utilise the two other entrances that are found at the venue. They could have been used for those who had tags and those who were entering the VIP and VVIP.
This led to a lot of people leaving the venue and going to various nights spots in the city who cashed in on the chaos.
Patrons who spoke to Chronicle Showbiz said they had to wait an average of two hours to gain access to the show. A patron who was at Horizon Night Club said they left the Kalawa gig after they realised it was impossible to get in.
“We had come earlier on in the day to pay for our tickets so that we return to the show later after we had bathed, changed and eaten. To our utter shock at 11PM when we returned, we found a long winding queue. We waited for an hour and then decided to go to Horizon where we spent the rest of the night,” said the patron who declined to be named.
Another patron said he had five people who wanted to enter the VVIP section of the show but they were put off when they were told they had to queue up like any other person.
“There was clearly no advantage in paying more money to enter if you were queuing with everyone else. If I wanted to be in the ground for a cheaper ticket I was going to go there. We then decided after about 10 minutes that it was not worth it and we left for Horizon,” said Charles Gumede who had come from South Africa.
The Lounge recorded a sharp increase in patrons at around 12 midnight.
“We went to the Lounge at around 8PM and there were not many people but when we returned at 11PM it was packed. There was no room to manoeuvre or dance from inside to outside,” said another patron of the pub.
Club Eden had to charge double its normal entrance fee because of the amount of people that were at the night spot.
“The Club was so full. We had people coming into the club at around 11PM. We thought it was normal but an hour later there was still a long queue. We then decided to hike the entrance fee to $10,” said DJ Slamma, the club resident DJ.
One of the organisers of the Kalawa show, Vusumuzi Siqalaba, apologised for the commotion and promised that next year they would be more organised.
Online Reporter