THE local entertainment industry is never short of setbacks. Poor planning and lack of sponsorship remains a stumbling block for many event organisers.

Such was the case with the highly billed ‘Rwanda Turn Up’ musical tour in which leading artistes were supposed to hold shows in different parts of the country.

Preeminence Company Ltd, a Belgium-based event management company, the organisers of the tour has cancelled the remaining shows citing budgetary constraints and mismanagement.

Although the tour was due to take place at four venues, it was called off after only two shows in Musanze and Kayonza on August 12 and 19 respectively.

Two more shows were expected to take place at Petit Stade on August 26 and finally Rubavu on September 2 but they were never to be.

Counting his losses, Olivier Tuyishimire, the brain behind the entertainment tour, blamed the flop of the tour on poor management and a clash with bigger concerts involving popular artistes.

"We incurred losses due to signing expensive deals with artistes and we were also affected by the tour coinciding with other events including The Ben and Meddy’s performances at Kwita Izina Gala Dinner and Mutzig Beer Fest 2017 respectively,” said Tuyishimire.

He said that he trusted some local partners to help him drive the tour but they let him down.

"I had trusted my management team to make the tour a success since I did not have enough information about Rwandan showbiz. They did not anticipate and poorly scheduled the event and also signed expensive contracts with artistes, all of which put me in a loss,” he said.

Tuyishimire also failed to get sponsors to come on board and as a result did not meet contractual obligations with the artistes.

After cancelling the tour, Tuyishimire has approached the Ministry of Sports and Culture, looking to get a refund of the money he paid for Petit Stade, one of the scheduled venues where Rwanda Turn Up would be held.

Social Mula, Oda Paccy, Bruce Melodie and Dream Boys and Bull Dogg were the local stars supposed to headline the tour but they fell out with organisers over unpaid monies, including for the earlier performances.

Social Mula said he has no hope of getting paid the money he worked for since the payment date agreed with organizers has already passed.

Meanwhile, Dream Boyz pulled out of the tour, following a heated misunderstanding with the organisers before they performed in Kayonza.

Other events that suffered the brunt of poor organisation and advertisement over the past months include; the 6th edition of the annual Rwanda Movie Awards on July 7th, in Kigali, and the ‘Pressing Forward’, headlined by Tanzanian singer and songwriter Darassa. Both shows were expected to attract a big fan base but only just a handful of revellers attended.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw