By Wayne Chiridza
Some fans wishing to attend Burna Boy’s concert in Harare have said that the show whose entry charges range from US$35 to US$100 or equivalent is overpriced.
The Nigerian afro-pop artiste is billed to perform at the Hellenic Sports Ground on April 17 with Asaph, Winky D, Ammara Brown, Jah Prayzah, Sulumani Chimbetu, Tammy Moyo and Enzo Ishall. VIP tickets have been pegged at US$100.
Since the plan for the staging of this show was announced earlier this month, there has been a lot of excitement with many expressing interest to attend.
However, most fans feel the ticket pricing by event organiser, Kayse Connect, is a bit too steep and will bar them from watching the top act perform as they will be expected to fork out about RTGS$900 for normal entry.
What has irked most also is that the same artiste will be performing in Namibia on April 4 and tickets there are way less than the local show.
Early bird tickets for the Namibian concert have been pegged at N$200 (US$13.43).
Commenting on the ticket pricing on Facebook, one Tich Ray said the local promoter, who hosted another Nigerian, Patoranking last year, may want to revisit their pricing as they risk running a loss.
“Lots of cries on my feed on the pricing for the Burna Boy show. Whoever these the promoters are, they gotta be careful not to price the show into a megaflop. No matter how broke I am or how big Burna is, US$35 is too much,” wrote Tich Ray.
Some simply said: “For US$100 VIP, Burna Boy will have to come to my ear and whisper ‘Ondiloo’.”
Research however showed that Burna Boy who is one of the biggest African acts at the moment after dropping his African Giant album has tickets that can sell for about US$80 with an average price of US$89 at international concerts showing how big he is.
Looking at the line-up also for his local show which has all the local heavyweights, save for Alick Macheso, Kayse Connect may be justified for that price as most of these artistes do not come cheap.
Elton Kurima of Kayse Connect told our sister newspaper, The Herald that the ticket pricing was justified although there was room for adjustment.
“I’ve seen and received a lot of complaints with some people saying that it’s too much to charge US$35 for the concert,” Kurima said.
He however justified the pricing saying they were going all out with this show, something people will experience on the day.
“We want to give people value for money. I can’t share the plan of the stage and lighting among others, but what I can say is there’s room to reduce the prices. I can’t confirm how much as of now but I’m definitely going to take it up,” he said. The Chronicle
