The City of Cape Town has been accused by ANC councillors that the Michael Bublé and One Direction concerts, held earlier this year within ten days of each other in the City-owned Cape Town Stadium, were in part funded by the City, and ultimately its ratepayers!
Reported in Die Burger, the article alleges that R2,1 million of ratepayers’ monies were used to pay for tickets and security for the 19 March Michael Bublé and 1 April One Direction concerts. R243000 is alleged to have been paid to concert organiser ‘Big Concerts International’ (sic – the company is known as Big Concerts), a private company and dominant concert organiser in our country, for tickets, and close to R500000 for security, an expenditure which should have been the responsibility of the concert organiser.
At a Council meeting of the City on Thursday Acting Mayor and Mayoral Committee Member for Transport for Cape Town Brett Herron, already overloaded with roadworks dramas, was not able to answer the questions asked about the expenditure by the ANC’s Majidie Abrahams.
Big Concerts describes itself as ‘South Africa’s largest premier live entertainment company. The company has promoted more than 1600 shows with an excess of 300 international artists to an audience of more than 10 million people since South Africa’s inception to the international community in January 1992′.
Die Burger also reported that Big Concerts MD Justin van Wyk confirmed that his company has a three-year contract with the City of Cape Town for assistance in bringing big name concerts to the Cape Town Stadium, given the costs of such performers in Euros and Dollars, making it more expensive to bid against other international cities to attract such performers. Not only ticket sales, but also the international Social Media coverage is vital, Big Concerts said, with One Direction having 92 million and Michael Bublé 2 million Twitter followers according to the article (but only 23 million Twitter followers in reality for One Direction), favourable Tweets about the city being invaluable marketing! The City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Tourism, Events, and Marketing Garreth Bloor claimed that 7 – 10% of the One Direction concert-goers were from outside Cape Town – one wonders how he measured this!
The strategy of the City’s Tourism, Events, and Marketing Directorate is to host as many events in Cap Town as possible, so as to meet its goal of becoming the Events Capital of Africa! Hosting two international acts within ten days won Cape Town brownie points, but may only have been possible with the financial support of the City of Cape Town. One wonders what the ramifications of this expenditure, which must have received approval from Mayor Patricia Lille, will be, if any!
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Tel (021) 433-2100, Twitter:@WhaleCottage Facebook: click here
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