Micasa ditch show due to schedule mix-up
Sharon Mathala | Tuesday November 1, 2016 17:50
The event took place at the Stanbic Bank Molapo Piazza, and it attracted a little less than 100 people.
The only acts who honoured the show were Lizibo, DJ Izzy and DJ Kuchi. Even though the MC of the event, Yarona FM’s Dolla Mac kept announcing that the main act of the night, Micasa, were on their way to the venue, the latter had a different story to tell.
The group’s lead singer, J Something expressed his disappointment through his Twitter account. “We do sound check, head to hotel and he tells us to be ready at 9pm to perform at 10pm. With hardly anytime we eat and get ready. 9pm dololo, 10pm dololo. 11pm dololo. 12 dololo. 1am another lady arrives and she is stage manager and doesn’t know where the promoter is. Eventually he arrives at 1:30am and says we should go perform. We’ve been waiting literally for hours. No communication with my team AT ALL!” (sic)
Adding on Micasa’s misery, at check out time at the hotel, they were asked to pay for their accommodation and dinner. The group also had to organise their own transport to the airport, as well as pay for their flights back home. The group has however apologised to those that attended the event and promised to come back to the country.
For his part, Tariq Babitseng who said he was not the promoter of the show but rather an investor, had a totally different tale. He said everything had been done right and that they fulfilled the contract.
“When they arrived at the airport the shuttle from the hotel was delayed, they only got to the venue for sound check at around 6.30pm and they found Amantle still handling her own sound check,” Babitseng explained.
“They were finished with their sound check (Micasa) at around 8pm and they headed to the hotel and I told them that we would communicate the new time slot,” Babitseng said.
Babitseng further said he later received a call from the Heavenly Sent group manager informing them that there was a lady claiming to be the stage manager at the hotel to pick them up.
“They said they did not trust that she was the stage manager, so I drove to the hotel to go get them. This was around 11pm. When I arrived there it was a totally different story altogether.
“They said they could not perform because we had breached the contract. J Something also walked up to me and said they had heard that only 70 people turned up for the show because we publicised it late.”
Babitseng further claimed that he told the group that it was not about the number of attendants but those that had paid to attend the event. Babitseng refuted allegations that the group had to pay for their own accommodation and transport back.
“I paid for everything. I have the invoices from Grand Palm. As for their flights back home it was just a misunderstanding and I was only told about the mix up the following day. When I tried to correct it they had already paid for themselves,” Babitseng said further adding that the team is currently in talks with their legal team to see the way forward.