Briony French: ZARFEST

When i heard that Lil Kim, Ciara and Timberland were coming to South Africa and all performing together, I was totally amped and informed my friends that enjoyed this type of music and off we went to Computicket to go and book our tickets. We were extremely worried as we were buying our tickets a day before the concert.

We were very surprised to be able to still get tickets and we each paid our R500 per ticket. The 3rd of June was the day of the concert, and we created a group for ZARFEST where we could share our excitement, and the whole day we were going on and on about how awesome this was gonna be.

We all got to our meeting spot which was a mates house where we all got ready together and worked each other up about Timberland and Ciara, the rest we weren’t so excited for but thought we were scoring, R500 for Lil Kim, Ciara, Timberland, Fat Joe and Dj Scratch.... What a line up seriously.

What a score....

Before we knew it, it was time for us to head on over to the Coca-cola Dome in Northgate, we drove into the parking lot and were shocked... What? Where are all the cars, We checked our tickets we are on time, so we go right up to the Dome and see cars and people and shew the concerts still on. YAY!!!!

We park, empty out what we don’t need from our pockets and head for the gates, we prepare to be searched and have our tickets torn as we get closer to the door... Excitement levels are so high.... and then we walk into the Dome, and they had Barricaded up half the dome, to push the crowd forward... hmmm... was this a bad marketed concert? Well the answer is yes.

Ticket sales were very poor and I’m sure the organiser Kenny Kunene for Club Zar lost millions in doing this whole thing and I keep thinking to myself why? Why didn’t you get a promoter? You could have made a killing. Once the ticket is sold the money is there.

It wouldn’t have mattered if this was probably one of South Africa’s poorest put together concert ever, and to be honest I don’t think the artists when they saw the outcome, took it seriously and didn’t put in their best show effort, Fat Joe and his entourage were off and out and no one could hear much, Lil Kim, well i don’t know... she seemed off too, maybe Rapping isn’t meant to be live, maybe it was a sound issue. I’m not really sure, Ciara came out and looked like she wasn’t singing but lip singing... and Timberland, well let’s just say we left whilst he was on. The performer was DJ Scratch and why, because it was just music.

The 10 minute sound checks between artists also seemed a lil tacky and to be perfectly frank the whole thing was a big disappointment for everyone who attended the concert, and I’m pretty sure it was for even Kenny and the artists that came.

Next time in my opinion get a promoter, and go BIG!!! People want to see these artists. Just do it properly...