Along with most of the population I also share the misguided notion of brilliantly clear 20/20 hindsight after The Herald and Times Live broke the news that the MBay Megafest scheduled for 2 June 2012 at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium has had the plug pulled and will not be taking place.
See: Plug pulled on Ludacris gig
It pains me that once again Port Elizabeth is the laughing stock of the country as we prove yet again that we are unable to hold a mega concert such as this.
The warning signs were all there:
- Postponed first press announcement
- Second press announcement venue moved at short notice
- Even the security guards at the stadium did not think highly of Zeranza
- The on-off announcements
- The sniping from local artists
- Being told that the tickets were going to be sold and then having that postponed again and again
- Zeranza instructing a certain PR Company to try and BULLY me into removing the artist line up from MyPE as it was supposedly affecting ticket sales
- My offer of a SUPER PRIME advertising spot on MyPE at a SUPER LOW price being ignored – I presume because I only work on the ‘money up front’ principle.
- The veiled bleat of ‘people not supporting the organisers’
- A certain high up at Access being the only one to know what was going on with the Zeranza arrangement
- The emphasis by Zeranza on needing sponsorship in order to hold the Megafest
- No track record of holding such or even much smaller events
- The fancy bling reception area
- 36 000 tickets at an average of R200.00 each gives a R7.2 Million Rand turnover – do the math and estimate what the overseas artists, hire of the venue, marketing and security will cost and you will understand that it will never be enough.
A long long time ago I was involved with a couple of guys in bringing artists to the Eastern Cape and we only brought them here based on sound business principles – if we could make money based on ticket sales ONLY we were happy, any sponsorship or assistance was viewed as JAM.
- I wonder if the NMB Stadium management team ever asked the pertinent questions that would lead them to understanding that the business case for the MBay Megafest was doomed to fail?
- I wonder if 5FM, The Herald and the Lamppost guys will ever see their money for adverts placed?
- I wonder why we continue to believe untried, untested and underwhelming ‘music promoters’?
- I wonder if we can ever gain our pride back?
- I wonder if we will ever learn from this bitter disappointment?
- I wonder if we even have the energy to counter this BAD Publicity for the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropole?
The MyPE Advert mock up for the MBay Megafest is below – as you can see a prime prime spot for any advertiser:
Alan Straton
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And news just in from Derrick Spies, Metro newspaper – “68% salary increase, for the Bay’s acting municipal manager from July, taking his salary to R2.4million a year, just R100k shy of the president’s salary.”
Do these people deserve the hard earned Ratepayers money? Our municipality is a sham and the service that they deliver is despicable, but the big bucks continue to roll in.
Acting Nelson Mandela Bay Municipal Manager Salary increase: http://myportelizabeth.co.za/big-bucks-for-city-bosses/ – All the world is a stage and Port Elizabeth pays it’s actors well!
No surprise Alan, I think we all saw this coming – where else do you get the equivalent of the corner cafe promoting a mega-million Rand event. The population owe nothing to any potential promotor of an event. On the score of the metro’s ratepayers being constantly reamed, isn’t it time that we took matters into our own hands and remove them once and for all. Sadly, with the free-loaders and poor being given an equal vote, there is no other solution. They’ll thank us in time to come when a properly run city is able to attract real investment, creating jobs. Not necessarily the so-called “decent jobs” that the comrades shout about – but what’s decent about rummaging on a dump to survive and what’s decent about living in a rotting shack?
@ TheKing – we can add the shocking state of schools and hospitals to your list and then ask where is the “Dignity”?
The one failing of people who pay for such disappointments (the ratepayers) is that most of them are too busy trying to meet the next rates, bond, L&W, Car payment to actually do something meaningful to educate those who are “rummaging on a dump to survive” or “living in a rotting shack”.
Yes that vote makes a difference – we need to open people’s eyes to the possibility and present them with a PROVEN and VIABLE alternative.
In other words we are preaching to the converted here – we need to meet with the unhoused and forgotten and give them a hand up, not a hand out.
The sad fact here is that it will not be Zeranza that will receive a bad name through this. It will be the people of Nelson Mandela Metro which didn’t support the initiative! It will be the people of Nelson Mandela Bay who aren’t ready for a big event like this. How mislead the rest of South Africa and the world will be! The residents of Nelson Mandela Bay do support big artists and events when they are well planned! Just take a look at some of the recent big acts and our record speaks for itself, Elton John, Josh Groban etc! All of the previously mentioned events were planned by well respected and ORGANIZED event companies and that was the difference! Zeranza should be embarrassed! Unfortunately it is not only them that are now paying the price. Unfortunately Nelson Mandela bay residents now become the laughing stock, once again completely UNFAIRLY!!!!!
Good Point, Andrew – Those artists were brought to Port Elizabeth on the basis of well thought out business plans and not sold to political masters on the muddled notion of ‘entertaining the people’ – it is time that we realised that the ONLY way for us to hold our heads up high is on the basis of EXCELLENCE.
Let the politicians POLITIK
Let the businessmen BUSINESS
And NEVER let the two mix.
This was not surprising in the least. Suddenly a big ra-ra publicity campaign out of nowhere, a big poster up outside my place of work in Uitenhage declaring that international big name artists would be performing in PE in 2 weeks from then?? Usually when big name artists perform on our shores (Josh Groban, being the most recent concert that comes to mind), we the general public know months in advance and ticket sales progress over those months. This nonsense of promoting a big event in crash-and-burn style in a short space of time (2 weeks, I ask you!) is never going to work. And then trying to hype it up in frantic fashion is just plain daft. Yes, I agree, Port Elizabeth as a whole looks like a total fool again thanks to a small bunch of clueless idiots. Thanks for nothing, but hopefully the lesson has FINALLY sunk in!!!