Five United States dollars or less paid to a bouncer manning entry points into the Harare International Conference Centre (HICC) is all it took for an ordinary ticket holder to find themselves in the VIP sections of the Ikonic Chronicles concert on Friday.
Seeing the auditorium fully packed and having set ticket prices on US$15, US$40 and US$80 for ordinary, VIP and VVIP sections respectively, organisers of the event, Kayse Connect may have thought they had made a killing but to someone who witnessed or benefitted from the underhand activities happening at most entry points, it was another bad day for event promoters.
By midnight, HICC was still half full with multitudes outside waiting for an opportunity to negotiate with the bouncers to gain access into the show.
The likes of Sulumani Chimbetu, Jah Signal and Takura whose slots came in the early hours of the concert actually performed in front of a half-full auditorium in what looked like yet another epic flop to the Nigerian star Patoranking’s debut performance on Zimbabwe soil.
However, there was somewhat a turn of misfortune following an instant fill of the gigantic venue as soon as Jah Prayzah hit the stage.
263Chat witnessed bouncers going out to collect money and accompany their clients into sections of their choice.
Some ‘undeserving’ people could be seen lingering in the VVIP section without tags at all.
Reached for comment, organisers of the event indicated that they noted such occurrences and tried their best to minimise the loss and are still to understand the magnitude of their losses.
“We noted such cases and tried our best to curb them. The impact of such activities is yet to be known since we haven’t yet reviewed whether or not we made profits,” said Elton Kurima from Kayse Connect.
Corrupt activities at major events have become a big problem in Zimbabwe with the last two warriors matches at National Sports Stadium witnessing a huge turnout of people gaining access into the venue through bribing soldiers manning gates.
