Hamptons hopeful for October
Spira Tlhankane | Friday June 26, 2020 15:47
The date is subject to changes due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. “It is a challenging time as borders are still closed though we have begun to see some countries writing down their anticipated border opening up structure including flights too. We live in hope to see the same in Botswana,” event organiser Debbie Smith told Arts & Culture.
She said Hamptons already has international artists from South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, therefore they are following updates of COVID-19 in all four countries.
Smith was quick to mention that they also have local artists on the line-up who were looking forward to being on stage alongside legends. “Charma Gal as an example, has a song with Jah Prayzah from Zimbabwe. It would have been at The Hamptons that we would get to see the two collaborating in a live performance. Imagine the nostalgia for Charma Gal’s fans,” she stated. Smith also revealed that recently they did a survey on the Hamptons Facebook page to check if local fans were fine with an all-local artists lineup event without international acts. “Ninety-seven percent of the fans wanted an event with both local and international artists as that is what they bought tickets for originally,” she highlighted.
She also said there has been low levels of demand for refunds for the March event, with most ticket holders happy to attend in October 2020 instead. However, Smith added that there have been some drastic losses too.
“Any further refunds will be looked into if the October 2020 event is deemed not safe to carry on. Once we get the go-ahead for events, to make sure things run smoothly in the future. We currently have some staff who are still working full time, but we had to stop others till we know where we are going with the event,” she added.
Smith said since they started preparing for the 2020 event from last October they have spent a total of P626,000 already.