SWAMA CONDEMNS ‘FAKE’ SHOWS THIS FESTIVE

MBABANE – Once beaten twice shy! The powers that be in the local entertainment scene have taken it upon themselves to caution fun lovers, artists and promoters to be vigilant over fake shows during the festive season.

This is because the industry previously had to deal with situations where promoters failed to deliver on their promises.
This ugly trend, which rocked the entertainment scenes in previous years, led to a lot of fun lovers losing their money through purchasing tickets hoping to see their favourite artists who ended up not pitching up.

SWAMA PRO Thabile Mdluli condemned promoters who took the public for a ride and sell them a dummy.

Tantamount

“In fact, this is tantamount to fraud and such promoters risk prosecution. Be that as it may, we know not all promoters go out of their way to lie to the public. Sometimes it is an issue of being ambitious,” Mdluli said.
She added that such promoters usually had the desire to bring an international act but did not have the means to do so.

“Some promoters will want to rely on ticket sales in order to pay the artist and if those tickets do not fly off the shelves as expected, we all know what is going to happen - the artist will not show up because the promoter failed to keep his side of the bargain,” she added. Moreover, she added that on the flipside, there were artists who held no respect whatsoever for their fans.

“You book them; they agree to come only to somersault on the last day because they have found a better offer elsewhere. In essence, being a promoter is not easy,” she concluded.
Her counterpart, Secretary General Bongani ‘Thizalami’ Dube encouraged artists to insist on contract arrangements before sealing any deals.

Condemned

He added that such contracts must be honoured. Coming to promoters who advertise ‘fake’ shows, he condemned the act while labelling it as ‘guerrilla marketing tactics’.
“It is daylight robbery and we plead with people to shy away from such acts.  Our aim is to promote local artists and promoters. The aim is to invest in our own talent; we encourage local promoters to invest in local artists.  And local artists need to be at par with international standards,” he said.
Meanwhile, Eswatini National Council of Arts and Culture (ENCAC) CEO Stanley Dlamini said all promotional materials without their logo audience would not be protected. He said they would engage the police to ensure festivals were protected.

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