The Ballantine’s team got it almost all wrong with the organization. Firstly, they secured a hall that could not accommodate every invitee who made their way to the venue. Over 200 hundred people who had tickets were denied access into the hall. The sad thing is that most of those who were denied access had been issued VIP tickets.
In my opinion, the organizers must have been used to organizing events for Cameroonian artists who barely pull such a huge crowd, possibly why they underestimated the turnout and went for La Falaise Diamond hall which obviously could not accommodateeveryone.
Secondly, there was no respect for the media, especially the bloggers who showed up as most were denied access to the eventand there was no distinction between normal invitees and the media. This was a clear indication that they barely acknowledged the presence of the latter on ground.
The ‘Meet and Greet’ with Fally Ipupa was earlier scheduled for 2PM–4PM but the time was eventually changed to 4PM-6PM and the update was only communicated an hour or two prior to thescheduled time.
Coupled with all the frustration of the last-minute time change, the ‘Meet and Greet’ was very brief. The media did not get to ask the artists questions and there was relatively no interaction between the artist.
The Meet and Greet which was scheduled to be for two hours, did not last for up to an hour with the artists. Thereby limiting the media from getting the information they were there for.
The poor organization led to rioting. The fans who couldn’t make their way into the hall were stranded and frustrated. This led to them protesting and fighting the security just to get themselves to witness the event.
This provoked the firing of gun shots by the police at the crowd andeven though there were no casualties or injuries, being around the firing of gun shots is not safe. What would have happened if someone got shot?
Event organizers need to consider the safety of their attendants, especially if they are the ones who invited them. A question I am still pondering on is “What was the need of issuing more tickets to people who wouldn’t be able to attend an event causing frustration?
