Return of ‘Sting Clash’

Takudzwa Chihambakwe
Leisure Correspondent
THE controversial Sting Clash, which left many music fans injured and property vandalised at the City Sports Centre in November 2014, is back.
The first edition of the Jamaican borrowed concept ended on an ugly note as a dispute on stage between Seh Calaz and Soul Jah Love spilled into the audience, resulting in bloody clashes.
To make matters worse, a teargas canister was also thrown into the packed venue, causing a stampede that left many injured and massive damage to property.
After the incident, which drew a lot of criticism from arts stakeholders and music fans, and also saw the police getting involved to investigate the origins of the teargas canister, the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ) immediately began their own investigations.
However, the findings of that inquest by the arts mother body were never made public.
To date, the NACZ insists it found nothing worth publishing.
Last week Catherine Mthombeni, the NACZ spokesperson said: “As the National Arts Council we said we would make public the findings of the investigations that we undertook if they were worth publishing.”
This reporter then informed Mthombeni that the same concept run by the same promoter was back and set for February then asked her if the NACZ was endorsing the gig.
It is then that she promised to get a response from her superiors, which had not happened by the time of going to print.
Chipaz Promotions, the organisation behind Sting have stated that this time around they are going to deliver a better product to the fans.
“Firstly, I would want to apologise to the nation for the incident that took place at the City Sports Centre back in 2014,” said the proprietor of Chipaz Promotions, Partson “Chipaz” Chimbodza.
“It was never our intention to have the clash resulting in a fight and we ask for forgiveness from all the Zim dancehall fans and the nation at large. This second edition of the Sting Clash will take place in February at the City Sports Centre.
We are just finalising on the actual date with my team and we will announce it soon.
“An exciting element we will be introducing to the show this time, will be that of a renowned Jamaican artiste, whom we will reveal in the next coming days.
“This Jamaican artiste will clash with a top local artiste on the day and this is something that fans will be looking forward to.
The main objective with this year’s Sting is to establish relations with our fellow Jamaican partners, which will see local dancehall acts also going to perform in Jamaica,” revealed Chimbodza.
Chimbodza also went on to highlight some of the changes they will put in place to avoid the skirmishes of 2014.
“This time around we will be tightening our security to ensure that any persons who try to cause chaos are dealt with before it blows out of control.
We will also be investing more in lighting so that we have clear visuals on everything that will be taking place in the auditorium.
In most of our shows we usually dim the lights, but, this time we will make sure its super bright and any unscrupulous acts are easily picked out.
“Another area we will be attending to are the exit points. At the last Sting, we were using a limited number of exit points, hence the stampede after the clashes.
But, we will be increasing the exit points this time around and once the venue is full we will stop admitting people this was one area we failed in at the 2014 Sting,” said Chimbodza.
Another issue that has left many music fans disgruntled at most Chipaz Promotions shows is that after entering the venue, if an individual exits, to be readmitted they would have to pay the full amount again.
When quizzed if his organisation would stick to their backward way of doing things in 2016, Chimbodza said: “We have heard the complaints from people who come to our shows and this year we will be correcting that by introducing tags. But, besides the tag, an individual will also get an extra feature attached to them to avoid people cheating us.
In the past we have had scenarios were an individual enters and then collects tags from people inside, which they would then sell to those outside.
This is what had caused us to say once in no going out. But, this year we will improve on that.”
Chimbodza also pointed out that Zim dancehall had stagnated.
“There was a point when Zim dancehall was growing, say 2014 going backwards but in 2015 the genre plateaued. One of the major reasons for this is the fact that the artistes have nothing new to offer.
Fans end up complaining that they are tired of the same old acts.
“Most of these artistes use backtracks but sadly such a format gives one little room for variation.
I would encourage the youngsters to incorporate live instruments in their performances and I believe this will have a huge impact on their performances and thus they can deliver something new to fans.”