Nairobi News

NewsWhat's Hot

Raburu: Why Gengetone Festival failed in Machakos – VIDEO


Citizen TV presenter Willis Raburu has revealed what caused the mega flop of the much hyped Gengetone Festival in the weekend.

The event which happened on Saturday at Machakos People’s Park attracted an unexpected low turnout and was mareed by controversy.

Pictures from the poorly attended event trended on social media for the better part of Saturday and Sunday, with Raburu taking most of the heat.

The media personality-cum-musician on Sunday, through a video on Instagram, explained that he was not the event’s organiser, delinking himself from the poorly organised show.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

On stage pre-hype @gengetonefest ??? @vivid._visuals

A post shared by Willis Raburu (@willisraburu) on

“The Gengetone Festival was not my event. I attended basically as an emcee and as an [upcoming] artist. The pictures that you are seeing, I was hyping the guys who were there at the time”, he further lamented, adding that “as the time progressed, more people started coming in.” said the disappointed 10 Over 10 show presenter in the video.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Teachable moment in the creative industry in KE

A post shared by Willis Raburu (@willisraburu) on

According to Raburu, the flop of the event was majorly caused by the failure by the organisers to pay the performing artistes the balance of their cash as had been promised before they went on stage. He said that he was the one who urged the Gengetone artistes not to to get on stage if they had not been paid the second half of their performance fee .

“I went backstage and started talking to the artistes. They told me they wanted to perform but they had not been paid the other half of the money. The rule for most artists is that you pay half (of the agreed amount) before the event, then pay the other half before they perform,” he explained.

“I told them, ‘If you guys step on this stage and perform, then we will never break the cycle of people being taken advantage of, more so Gengetone artists,” he added.

According to the Gengetone Fest CEO Joe Mtetezi, the event was to bring together more than 20 Gengetone musicians to perform at the Machakos venue.

King of Genge Juacali and Mejja, alongside Gengetone kings Ethic, Boondocks, Sailors, Mbogi Genje, Wakali Wao, Breeder LW, Gwaash, Ochungulo Family, Zzero Sufuri, Benga Musician Maima and Ssaru and Vdj Jones were among the headliners for the inaugural event.