Concert chaos prompts tighter control of public events

KHOSI BIYELA

Promoters planning to host any public event in Durban with an audience of 2 000 or more will soon be required to meet municipal regulations.

These will include rules on ticketing and security plans, and those who fail to comply risk being “blacklisted”.

This emerged at a press conference this week.

The meeting was initially called to discuss the chaos at the Gospel All Stars Concert at the Durban Christian Centre (DCC) in December.

The event organiser, Ayanda Ncwane, said crowds outside the DCC, including many people with valid tickets, were told that the venue was packed and there was no room. They became angry and municipal officials who were at the concert to represent eThekwini – which was a sponsor – asked that the concert be called off.

When the audience inside learnt of this, they too became angry and began hurling objects at the stage.

Eventually, a decision was taken that the show must go on.

Ncwane blamed the chaos on the circulation of fraudulent tickets and security guards selling tickets at the door for double the original price – unbeknown to her.

The head of the eThekwini parks, recreation and culture department, Thembinkosi Ngcobo, said they were going to “get to the bottom of this”. “It was fortunate that no one got hurt,” he said.

Ngcobo said that as a result of this, officials had decided that all events in the city must be regulated.

All event organisers and artists would now have to consult the municipality’s disaster management office before an event took place.

“There will be a structure looking into the proposed venue and the number of people. The safety of our people mustn’t be at risk,” he said.

Ngcobo said events would be categorised as either small, medium or large, with specifications according to the size. The categories would be based on the number of tickets up for sale, the proposed venue and the line-up of artists. “People like (kwaito star) L’vovo Derrango don’t fit the small-risk venues. The bigger the names on the line-up, and the bigger the venue,” he said.

Ngcobo said that the municipality already had rules in place, but it appeared that they were only being applied to bigger events, like Durban Rocks, held every New Year’s Eve.

He said the municipality would require engineers to monitor and examine the stage to ensure it wouldn’t collapse.

“At Gospel All Stars we didn’t consider any of this because it was held in the church (considered a smaller venue). But from now on, all events will have to liaise with us... Event organisers need to know this – if they fail to comply, they can be blacklisted... There is nothing called ‘free events’ from now on; if you have a free event, you must (still) issue tickets,” he said, warning that free events could attract overcrowding.

On overselling of tickets and ticket fraud, Ngcobo said they would talk to Computicket, with a view to safe-guarding ticket sales.

Fact! Durban Rocks organiser and celebrity DJ Tira said he feared the new regulations would hurt business.

“We’ve been going through these procedures, but it is too much if they apply to small events, too. The safety of our people is important, but I think they are making this too serious; things will be too difficult for us,” said Tira, adding that event organisers had their reasons when choosing a venue.

MTN Durban Jazz Festival organiser Mdu Ngcobo said he thought the rules would help curb ticket fraud.

A workshop to explain the new system has been planned for the third week of February.