Makhadzi show done at ‘zero budget’
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Sunday October 17, 2021 06:00
The festival has been the most talked about event in the country since it was announced two weeks ago following the lifting of the ban on music festivals. The event, scheduled for October 22 at Molapo Piazza, is organised by renowned promoter, Gilbert ‘PP wa Pimp’ Seagile of Gilbert Promotions.
Addressing members of the press this week, Seagile said they have no advance payments for the event. While music festivals, especially those involving international artists are often very expensive to organise, Seagile said for the upcoming show, all service providers have come on board as partners to relieve financial strain on the organisers. Seagile also said coming out of a long music festivals blackout, they could not afford Makhadzi’s rate, which ranges from P200,000 upwards. “The event is done at zero budget. We are getting goodwill from the sponsors.
They understand we have been out of business for a long time and want us to recover. Makhadzi’s quote is P200,000, so we can’t afford her as it is. She has come on board as a partner, so basically she will be doing it for free,” said Seagile. “Makhadzi loves Botswana. She has featured with local artists such as Maxy Khoisan, Vee Mampeezy and Charma Gal. She asked us to take care of her accommodation this side because she wanted to be here to give strength to her market and show her appreciation to her people,” Seagile explained. Although the festival is done at zero budget, Seagile explained that they have an agreement with everyone involved in the music festival, including Makhadzi and other artists on how they will share the proceeds. However, he could not reveal the details of the agreement and how much each partner is likely to get. Seagile said the festival came about as a result of demand from the fans hence the name The People’s Festival.
He said they are about to reach capacity sales of the tickets they intend to sell. “The capacity of this venue is around 7 300. So we want to sell about 4000 tickets with the idea of social distancing in mind. So we have service agents to keep tabs on the number of pre-sold tickets to manage the numbers. We are about to reach the 4000, at which we will declare the show sold out,” added Seagile. He explained that it would have been costly to use the National Stadium because it is expensive. For the security aspect, Emmanuel Kayenda said they have a team of experts that will look into the security, health and safety of the festival.
“We have adopted what is known as Pareto principle, which states that for many outcomes, roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes.
We did our assignment and found the potential hazards for the show,” said Kayenda “We will have sanitizers in place and a metal detector to detect any dangerous tools that can affect the safety of our patrons. We will also have 10 trained and dog marshals keeping guard in the parking lot.” According to the organisers, the music festival, which will run from 2pm on October 22 to 6pm the next morning, will directly employ about 700 people.