Jamaican dancehall star Collin Demar Edwards, better known by his stage name Demarco, received a cold reception in Rwanda on Saturday last week during a concert at the BK Arena in Kigali.
The show, which was staged at one of the biggest event venues in Kigali, ironically witnessed one of the lowest turnouts in the recent past.
The event was reportedly attended by only a handful of people, despite the arena having a capacity of up to 10,000 people.
Local artists who also performed during the event blamed the organizers for the poor organization while others decried an influx of too many foreign acts performing at local events.
The flop was largely blamed on poor organization, with the concert date initially being changed at the last minute. Revellers also cited poor time managements a setup.
“The concert was at first supposed to take place on December 29 but was postponed just a day before. Also, local artists that were supposed to perform at the event kept on withdrawing from the lineup and we could tell that something was wrong,” one was quoted as saying by The New Times publication.
Among those who dropped out of the concert citing poor organization were Chris Eazy and Ish Kevin, while Sintex, Spax, DeeJay Pius, Big Bang Bishanya, Dee Rugz and Davy Ranks were on the line up but never went up to the stage on the said day.
Yves Shyaka, a dancehall fan, said:
“Demarco is a good artiste but old fashioned. There are many new school dancehall singers that can make a good turn up in Kigali. The likes of Dexta Daps, Kranium, Popcaan and many others can never do what Demarco did to Kigalians.”