Thousands of hip hop fans left Kigali Conference and Exhibition Village (KCEV) looking so disappointed after Friday night’s Icyumba cya Rap concert closed prematurely before their favourite rap crew Tuff Gang performed amid poor time management.
The attendance was arguably higher than organisers even expected at the concert which had been postponed a fortnight ago after the initial venue, Canal Olympia, Rebero, was hit by heavy rains on December 28.
The Camp Kigali tent was so filled that some revelers were left with no option but to follow the concert from outside. It was a big win for Rwandan hip hop which rarely attracts such an attendance.
However, things took a sad turn when the concert closed before the Tuff Gang performed. Crew members Fireman, Green P and P-Fla showed up on stage to apologise that ‘time isn’t on our side. But we promise to stage our own concert.”
Bulldog wasn’t with the crew as he missed the concert, citing respiratory complications.
But the apology wasn’t convincing enough for the fans who blamed organisers on poor time management, leaving the venue visibly disappointed.
"It’s as if I didn’t come to the concert since I didn’t see Tuff Gang perform. They are the only reason I came here. I am so disappointed,” one Tuff Gang fan Ange said.
More artistes could have missed the stage had the concert been closed at 00:00AM as earlier planned, according to the agenda seen by The New Times.
Organiers requested for an extra hour to give more rappers an opportunity to perform.
"We did all we could to ensure that each artist on the line-up gets few minutes on stage. Unfortunately, it was too late for Tuff Gang to perform. Time was not on our side,” one of the organisers told The New Times.
According to the organisers, the first performer on the lineup was scheduled to show up on stage at exactly 7pm. But it wasn’t until 8:50pm that Logan Joe hit the stage and the full schedule was affected.
"Every artist had been informed about their respective time of performance. Everyone knows when he arrived,” he explained.