9 Things That Went Wrong

The third edition of Ghana DJ Awards which took place at the lobby of the Accra International Conference Centre was not completely catastrophic but considering how fans, events expects, industry observers and media have banged them over poor event organising structure, Mercury Republic could have given patrons something deserving of applauds. Mercury Republic, the main organisers of the event should have taken key notes from all the things that went wrong in the previous years but it seems critics doesn’t move them. From media accreditations ‘wahala’ to wrong timing – everything seemed not well organised.

Pulse.com.gh don’t mean to indict anyone in this review but to add our experience at the event to the voice of the patrons who wasted their precious time and money just to stand on their feet for hours.

See 9 things that went very wrong at the event – the repetition of the same thing over and over again.

1. Media accreditations “wahala”

Although, Pulse.com.gh was a media partner to the event but it took us hours to get our accreditation. For what we know, accreditations are always processed ahead of event but Mercury Republic seems confused over how to handle the media for events. We sent accreditation information ahead but to our surprise, tags were not ready at the entrance of the conference centre.

2. Awards held at the lobby when the main hall was empty

Yes, to everyone’s surprise, the stage was set at the lobby of the Accra International Conference Centre when the auditorium was rather empty. Patrons have stand on the feet for more than 7 hours as if they were soldiers preparing for war. This wasn’t a music event for God’s sake – this is an awards event where patrons need to take some rest at a time.

3. DJ Black – Headline performer was conspicuously missing

Before the event, publicity spinning around indicated that the three time DJ of the year winner, DJ Black and UK based 1995 DMC Technics UK Mixing Champion, DJ Kofi would headline performance on the night but Black was absent. No information has been released on his absence. We keep our fingers crossed for now.

4. DJs spend minutes to move deck

It took DJs who were billed to perform 10-15 minutes to move their deck. This means, their performances were wrongly planned.

5. DJ Young Joe and Neptune didn’t perform as promised

After DJ Young Joe of Neat FM received his “Lifetime Achievement” award on the stage, he descended with a very dull face so Pulse.com.gh team got closer to him to ask why his face has suddenly changed. “I am not happy. I was supposed to perform but the organisers didn’t allow me. See my deck and my CDs. Just see what I brought to perform,” the disappointed Young Joe lamented.

Our further investigations revealed that, popular Nigerian DJ, Neptune, who won the “Best International DJ” (Non-Ghanaian), was denied of performance on the night.

6. No MC (s) on the night

Just like last year, there was no MC for the awards events. Last year, TV personality Yaw Sakyi, who went to the show to enjoy himself as an industry observer and to also present an award, ended up on stage as the only MC for entire awards event, because the advertised MC (Klint De Drunk) for the night, for some reason, decided not to show up.

But this year, no show. We kept hearing a voice of a lady announcing nominees and awards presenters from behind the stage.

7. AK Songstress’ manager struggles with organisers before she performed

Before the last two awards were presented, we saw AK Songstress manager struggling with the organisers over her performance. Other information suggested that, the manager didn’t want his artiste to perform due to the low audience at the lobby.

And even at the end, we saw a poor performance from the Paradise Entertainment’s artiste.

8. Wrong timing

The even started around 9:30 pm. Maybe, Mercury didn’t consider time management when planning the event. They rather took “African Time” management in consideration and that’s why patrons run away before the show ended.

9. Missing projector and stage design

Pulse.com.gh investigations suggest that, Mercury Republic actually planned to use projectors to show nominees before winner are announced at the event but it was missing on the stage. The stage design wasn’t attractive enough – it looked like music show stage instead of awards show.

Conclusion

We don’t mean to whip Mercury Republic but rather remind them of their responsibilities during event planning and making it successful. Creating the same mess twice doesn’t make it right. They need to treat patrons to what they paid.

And also, for the awards given, we don't have much to say since most of them are based on public vote.