Up your game - event organisers told
Event organisers have been urged to ‘up their game’ if they want to increase patronage of their functions.
The advice is coming on the back of a blame game between event organisers and artistes about low patronage at events. While some have blamed artistes for not doing enough to promote events they are billed for, others have called out event organisers for not doing their homework.
Graphic Showbiz spoke to some event organisers including George Quaye of Image Bureau who recently organised the Samini Xperience concert on the issue.
According to him, event organisers are always to be blamed for poor patronage of events because “they fail to tell the artistes who feature on their shows what they expect from them.”
“Some event organisers think the artistes should promote the events they bill them on based on the relationship they have with them. I mean they want them to do such things on a pure friendship basis. It’s supposed to be part of the contract you sign with the artistes.
“The artistes are supposed to avail themselves for interviews and promote the event through their social media accounts. They must also do videos and photoshoots etc. and all these are supposed to be spelt out in the contracts.
“This is not supposed to be a word of mouth from the event organisers to the artistes to promote the event; state it in the contract. Event organisers should stop pleading with artistes to promote their events for them for free,” he said.
George Quaye explained that it was never the fault of artistes if there was low patronage of events as other factors such as venue and time contributed to the success of programmes.
“You see, the venue and the time are also factors. Someone might say he or she is not attending an event at a particular venue because of its malfunctioning air conditioners, etc. So it all comes down to targeting; you need to find out when patrons will be available and the proper venue for such persons,” he stated.
Another event organiser, Nabil Alhassan, who has organised events such as Easter Comedy Show, Rapperholic and Bhim Concert said a failed event was always at the doorstep of the organiser.
“Organising an event does not come that easily, especially if you want that massive crowd so an event organiser has to do a lot of work by booking the venue on time, do a lot of publicity and then engage the artistes billed to perform to also do their part by promoting the event, which should all be spelt out in the contract.
“If you go for an artiste who will not promote your event, then you should know what you are going in for. You take such artistes on if they fail to promote the event for people to attend after paying them so well”, he said.
For his part, artiste manager/events organiser Kwesi Ernest, who has also organised events such as Bliss On The Hills, S.P Sarpong In Concert, among others, said it was not entirely the fault of event organisers.
He stated: “Two people are beneficiaries here; the artistes who have taken the money to perform need the platform to showcase their talent so the onus is on them to also promote the event. After all, if people don’t attend the show, the artiste will perform to empty seats.
"And the more people talk about how well you did on a particular event, the more gigs you will get to perform at. More so, the artistes expand their fan base if they performed well in a highly patronised event.
“The event organiser has to also do his part by promoting the event well after paying so much to the artistes and for the venue. It is a win-win situation for the two parties. There is nothing wrong with artistes promoting the event and telling their fans to attend the event,” he added.
Reacting to the issue, Dancehall artiste Stonebwoy said event organisers should be blamed for the poor patronage of events.
“The artiste, for God’s sake, is not a promoter. He or she is a performer, not a promoter. Promoting and marketing are very separate parts of the event. Posting on social media platforms cannot be referred to entirely as promotion but endorsement to assure patrons that it’s genuine. That’s where it ends and that’s how far the artiste can go,” he added.
To Highlife artiste Kofi Kinaata, an event organiser knows the value of the artistes and how popular they are to pull patrons to the event “so at the end of the day if people still do not turn up, why should the artiste be blamed?” he questioned.