A combination of staff shortages, visa delays, and a sudden change of venue drove the Cultureland festival goers into a frenzy last weekend. Organizers are now trying to explain how the celebration didn't get off the ground.
Ferell Laditi told the Canadian Press that his two-day R&B and Afro fusion music festival premiere in suburban Toronto didn't go as well as he had planned. Said he didn't go.
"Looking back now, maybe I should have canceled," he said in a phone interview.
"But I created this festival." When the vision was to bring everyone together, bring in all cultures, and give the city what it could hold, we weren't going to trick anyone or steal money, give them a performance.
By Sunday night, many Cultureland ticket holders took to social media to vent their frustration that headliner Jenny Aiko didn't take the stage. I looked.
The event was the latest in a string of musical events in Ontario, but those events fell apart and concert-goers felt cheated.
Last week, the electronic music festival Ever After pulled the plug a week before it was due to start, as ticket holders wondered if they could get their money back.
Fans left in the heat
Meanwhile, attendees at the Kingston Music Festival in North York, Ontario, held a concert over the weekend that knocked down a fence. I posted a video of attendees rushing towards the stage to separate general admission and VIP sections. Some attendees complained of a lack of water at the venue during the heat wave.
A representative for Kingston Music Festival did not respond to a request for comment. He said it wasn't communicated properly.
On Sunday, many fans were drawn to Greater His Downs as Cultureland moved to his Ajax His Downs Racecourse, a half-hour drive from the original venue, Markham His Fairgrounds. Toronto had to run around his area.
Laurie Concepcion, who paid his $250 for a two-day pass, had concerns about the festival even before he arrived at the event on Saturday afternoon. By that point, she said organizers were slow to post performance schedules.
When she arrived, she found festival-goers waiting outside the gate. saw.
Some were hungry and her thirsty, she says, so ordered a food delivery service to deliver supplies while in line.
Other attendees said they saw people passing out from heatstroke inside the venue during headliner Burna Boy's performance on Saturday night.
} Without elaborating, Laditi said the venue's staffing and security "just fell short" of expectations. So he decided late Saturday night to move Sunday's Cultureland show to a racetrack in the city.
"Without the connections I had, it's literally impossible to move event venues in that short period of time," he said.
"I had to make a lot of requests."
However, he realized that his decision had created new complications that led to other unexpected hurdles.
Ticket holders complained that Sunday's venue change took place an hour before showtime, requiring them to rush by car or taxi across town. was leaking.
When they got there, the wait continued and several acts from Bill did not take the stage, including Stonebwoy, Fireboy DML, Lojay and Kamo Mphela. Raditi blamed their absence for not allowing African artists to enter Canada because of last-minute visa issues. I did," he said.
"Due to the pandemic, visas issued at the office [was] backed up, so many processes took weeks. It's not something.We can control it."
Rounding out Sunday's issue was an anticipation with headliner Aiko, whose performance was scheduled to take place at an abandoned venue. It was a problem. As of Sunday, her elaborate stage design remained. It was announced that the appearance would be canceled because it required "a level of visuals that could not be produced in a short period of time technically."
Laditi said she was "still trying to make it work" with Aiko before the festival finally ended around 7pm. That she couldn't get the show going. He was unable to explain why it took him until midnight to speak to the crowd. No, but there are a lot of legalities that have to be sorted out," he said.
Refund Plans
Even as Sunday began to fall apart, Raditi said she intended to refund concert-goers for the experience.
"We were going to reimburse everyone on that second day — and that's still the plan." He added that online rumors were not true.
Laditi plans to move forward with the second edition of Kultureland next year, and I'm sure it will go much more smoothly.
"Our goal next year is to make this a better experience for everyone involved," he said.
"I know there have been many setbacks in this, but the goal is to keep the cultures connected and build something that can build community here in Canada."
Some ticket holders say they can't imagine buying tickets for another Cultureland or other show on their own.
"I have no plans to go to a festival anytime soon," Tobi Nicholas said on the phone as he was driving home from Sunday's event.
"You can't trust anyone."
