The fall and rise of Fife Street Events

IT was a chilly Friday in April last year when Fife Street Events abruptly cancelled the “Monate Friday with Daliwonga” gig that was slated for Eyardini, disappointing the audience in the process.

At that point, there seemed to be one way for the event organisers; down. This is because Daliwonga, a South African Amapiano artiste had been the latest addition to the list of artistes that had become no-shows, with the former culprits being Amapiano pair, Sir Trill and Felo Le Tee.

The three botched shows threatened the very existence of Fife Street Events which was established in 2021.

Under immense pressure, Fife Street Events would not budge, but would successfully organise more shows. After all the skirmishes, Fife Street Events exhibited will of steel, bouncing back every time they stumbled on a hurdle.

Two weeks ago, the show promoters successfully hosted South African Amapiano artiste Aymos at The Boundary.

Speaking after the show, Fife Street Events’ chief executive officer Godknows “Serino” Dube told Chronicle Showbiz that staging a comeback was necessary.

“It was a must-do to stage a comeback so that we retain the confidence of our patrons. Successfully hosting Aymos was part of it. We had a tough 2022, but Covid-19 contributed a lot to most of our hiccups as we were not prepared.

“Some of the artistes that we booked during that era never made it to Zimbabwe because they didn’t meet the Covid-19 travel requirements. To be specific, some didn’t want to do Covid testing in the nose and it was beyond our control. Thus, it made some of our fans lose trust in us and we made huge losses on those failed gigs,” Serino said.

He credited their success to having solid relationships with the management of famous performers.

“Good relationships with artistes’ management have made us come back even stronger and now that Covid-19 is over, we’re operating nicely. We’ve also learned that networking is important in our industry and have had to collaborate with The Boundary bar, for example, and work as a team in order to help each other when things go south.

“In this game, you have to be brave enough to expose yourself to all artistes and create your own opportunities as you may never know who is looking for the opportunity you’re presenting. Rejection and losses may occur, but with resilience and consistency, the rewards are always worth the cost,” said Serino.

As a follow-up to Aymos, Serino said they will be hosting the Amapiano duo Scorpion Kings (Kabza De Small and DJ Maphorisa) who have a huge following in Bulawayo.