Masvingo winter gospel festival held at Mucheke hall over the weekend failed to live up to expectations as less than 10 people pitched up for the show.
It is the first time for more than three equally good gospel artistes to play under one roof and fail to attract a reasonable crowd.
Sad to see the said gospel “heavyweights” converge to perform in an empty giant Mucheke hall which on Saturday was filled only with sound checking echoes and band members following a ‘disappointing’ turn out.
Well-known participating artistes were forced to loiter outside the venue in a bid to make their faces and presence felt so as to lure revellers.
Kudzi Nyakudya could not stomach what was visibly the ‘all time’ flop or simply ‘flop of the year’ which left tongues wagging as to whether ‘Satan’ had invaded their ‘holy’ place.
“My brother, from this point in time I have completely nothing to say since the situation is very loud and clear and I believe you can also confirm that we had a bad outing here. This is the biggest flop I have ever witnessed or on a lighter note, it is one of its kind.
“I have never seen such a heart-breaking show in my 13 years as a gospel artiste. We tried all we could to market the show, but clearly we failed. Nothing else to blame except blaming ourselves, the artistes involved,” said Nyakudya.
The show which could have earmarked a memorable inaugural winter festival in Masvingo province ended on a disappointing note piling a heap of burden to the artistes involved with the logistics.
Mutare-based Blessing Shumba was nowhere to be seen on the venue and reports were that he was forced to make a U-turn after receiving the sad news four hours after the show’s scheduled kick-off time.
In what was a ‘silly’ technical blunder, organisers of the event had not clarified on the exact kick-off time on the poster from which some people had to guess whether the 10:00 was for morning or evening.
One of the 10 people who pitched for the event, really by coincidence, a Mangise, had no kind words for the artistes and she had to force re-imbursement.
“Mr Journalist I do not want to waste my time explaining the kind of situation it was. For your own information, I had come with the intention to promote these guys, but my efforts ruined my day,” said visibly troubled Mangise.
“I do not think I will ever attend any show of this kind in the near future,” she added.
It was a bad day in the office for a couple of vendors who had thronged the event anticipating bumper profits.
The 10 people who had pitched for the gig had to be re-imbursed and left the venue angry and disappointed.