DANCEHALL fanatics have urged music promoter Partson Chimbodza, popularly referred to as Chipaz, to shape up or ship out if he is to enjoy their support for his future gigs.
WINSTONE ANTONIO OWN CORRESPODENT
This comes after the promoter appeared to have failed to arrest bloody scenes at a number of his shows at the City Sports Centre in Harare.
The promoter has decided to have another go at the venue while wounds of the violence that erupted when he held the Sting 2014 on November 8 were still fresh. The music promoter is under pressure to deliver a smooth show this time around.
Yes, another dancehall show at the same venue on December 19!
Interestingly, Seh Calaz will be missing from the star-studded line-up of artistes headlined by Winky D who are billed to perform at the show dubbed Zimdancehall Shutdown.
For the uninformed fans, speculation has been rife that Chipaz had dropped Seh Calaz as a way of preventing possible violence at the event.
However, the truth is that the Mboko Imboko singer will be performing in Durban, South Africa, on the same night.
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The Shutdown gig will feature an array of artistes, among them Soul Jah Love, Dadza D, Killer T, Kinnah, Lady Squanda, Bounty Lisa, Ricky Fire, Cello Culture and Dj Templeman, Garry B and DJ Cables.
As the date of the show draws closer, probably the burning question from many dancehall fanatics and observers will be: Can Chipaz get it right this time?
Many of Chipaz’s shows have been marred by violence, with another one earlier this year seeing soldiers that had allegedly been hired for security instead of the police bashing fans in attendance.
Apart from the notion that the genre is viewed as violent and, of course, that the venue has somewhat become notorious for different vices from lack of security of fans and their belongings to peddling of drugs and illicit alcohol beverages, it is apparent it is high time that stern measures were taken to get the situation under control.
Following the hullabaloo at the Sting show, Chipaz said they had found ways to avoid recurrence of the same scenarios that marred the gig.
Just as he had promised before the Sting show, he said the upcoming gig would be violence-free.
“We have learnt from our past mistakes and this time, we have put the necessary provisions in place. We have improved our lighting system so as to clearly see all the perpetrators who might provoke others by throwing cans on the stage,” Chimbodza said.
“Unlike our previous gigs, we will put cameras in the venue to help us identify culprits as we continue to battle violence in dancehall.”
Chipaz said there were going to be multiple entry points as compared to the previous show and they were going to engage the artistes and their managers over the fanning of violence.
