The making of a concert disaster

Andrew Moyo
Romain Virgo, Mafikizolo, K.O, DJ Tira, Bucie and Morgan Heritage have all come and strut their stuff in Zimbabwe this year.
But not all promoters of international acts here have found the recipe for success.

Toya Delazy’s concert at Harare International Conference Centre last week as part of her “Rocking the City Tour” was an unmitigated disaster and show promoters Sound Events Management will be scratching their heads and wondering how it could have all gone so spectacularly pear shaped.

The organisers should have done their homework and assessed what kind of following their artiste had in Zimbabwe.
Many singers get rave reviews at home, but performing abroad is a totally different ball game. We now know that Toya Delazy is no big fish here, and even some among the handful who for a while sat bemused in the near-empty HICC walked out before her set was done.

The original venue was Mashonaland Turf Club, and its unavailability actually provided room for a postponement to allow Sound Events Management to reassess their plan. Considering that Toya Delazy fuses electric, jazz and pop sounds, the choice of venue was important as it determined what kind of crowd would want to go there.

Postponing would have given organisers time to look for an alternative other than HICC, which Toya’s fans would have been comfortable going to. Let’s face it, her type of music appeals to that income group and that group has flocked to shows in Harare’s immaculate northern suburbs and avoided the city centre.

Another thing that was not handled well was the line-up of supporting acts. While Ammara Brown, Tammy, Sharky, Tytan and Tammy are talented artistes who indeed put on brilliant displays at Toya Delazy’s Harare leg of the Rocking the City tour, they are not crowd pullers on their own.

International acts require aggressive marketing strategies, with shows being pushed months before the gig date. Not so with Sound Events Management’s handling of this show. There was hardly a buzz on the street even on the day Toya Delazy was to perform. Last year she was part of the Hifa line-up and staged a solid performance but this time around her set was below par.

Probably she was demoralised by the paltry crowd or maybe it was fatigue considering that she had a few hours to rest having arrived in the country from Zanzibar on the afternoon of the gig. And her hoarse delivery did nothing to endear herself to those in attendance and, more importantly, those who stayed at home.