The hamptons promoters call off show
Gothataone Moeng | Monday March 3, 2014 16:04
The show, scheduled for last Saturday, had booked such luminaries such as South Africans Hugh Masekela, Tshepo Tshola and Freshlygrounds as well as local cream of the crop in jazz such as Shanti Lo, Kearoma Rantao, Nnunu Ramogotsi.
But on Saturday morning, hours before the show was scheduled to take off, the Hamptons Promoters posted an apology on their Facebook page regretting that the show would be “cancelled due to the weather”.
The post stated that the promoters had been to the Duma fm grounds, and found ‘a mess’.
It also read that the artists could not perform in the drizzly weather.
The post also stated that the promoters would be talking with the artists to see if the show could be rescheduled for next month. However, by Saturday afternoon that status update had been deleted from the Hamptons Promoters page.
However, by late afternoon, the promoters had put up another post, saying the show would take place on March 15th, following meetings with Tshepo Tshola and Hugh Masekela, who were already in Gaborone over the weekend.
“The Hamptons Festival was postponed this morning due to heavy rainfall causing problems for logistics and the ground being very soggy making it less appealing to sit on the grounds or walk on them.
We have now had a meeting with Hugh Masekela and Tsepo Tshola and a new confirmation for our HAMPTONS JAZZ FESTIVAL is now on the 15th March 2014.”
In an interview with The Monitor, the Hamptons Promoters’ Debbie Smith said they had planned to have a red carpet and spit roasts and barbecue areas, so the weather and the state of the grounds “defeated the purpose of what we wanted to do.”
Meanwhile, Freshlyground, who were booked to perform at 10pm on Saturday, also took to their Facebook page, accusing the promoters of breach of contract, of not supplying the band with air tickets and not meeting their “financial obligations.”
“Due to circumstances out of our control, sadly Freshlyground will not be performing at Duma Show-grounds in Gaborone, Botswana tomorrow night 1st of March 2014. Our management has informed us that the promoters Hamptons Productions (sic) are in breach of contract; have failed to supply air tickets and have not met their financial obligations. We go to sleep heavy-hearted and saddened that we are not able to perform to a loyal audience that has supported and embraced Freshlyground for many years,” the post read.
Smith told The Monitor that there “was a bit of a blunder” with the Freshlyground flight tickets, in that they had initially intended for the group to get to Gaborone on Friday and at the last minute rescheduled their flight for Saturday morning. Smith revealed that they are still in talks with the band to see if they would be available to perform on March 15th, and said they are also talking to local artists to confirm their availability. While a UK group Sharp Jazz 9 had also advertised as one of the performers for the show, the group has now disappeared from the show line-up.
On Friday the promoters were scheduled to host an exclusive session for the media and VVIP ticket holders to meet and greet artists booked for the show.
While the meet and greet was scheduled for 7pm, journalists milled about for close to two hours with none of the organisers in sight to explain what was going on. Artists at the meet and greet included Masekela, Tshola, Ndingo Johwa, Thabang as well as Socca Moruakgomo, who was however not scheduled to perform. Tshola, who spoke briefly at the meet and greet, encouraged Batswana artists to take music globally and said he would like to see Botswana become a centre of excellence for arts and culture.
He said he was happy to see that the promoter of the jazz festival was a woman because of her nurturing touch.
Tickets for the show were priced at P350 in advance, P450 at the gate and P1,500 for the VVIP ticket.
The Hamptons Summer Jazz Festival was meant to be an annual event.