Thisday Music Festival

I hadn't planned to go to the concert, there were too many unkowns..and we were not sure about the security. To top it off, the first day was cancelled. A friend of mine called while JL was performing on the second day and said things were quite organised and safe so I decided to join them. I arrived late, after Shakira, and JL had performed and walked in just as Dbanj told the audience the REAL koko. A whole host of dancers in colourful traditional attire burst unto the stage and did an excellent job of entertaining us. It was very good. I surveyed the set up of Thisday events center. It's a huge white tent, well airconditioned and was divided into,regular, at the back, VIP, in the middle which was a great view and presidential sitting which was right in front of the stage. It was so unfair once again that they didn't think it was necessary to somehow elevate the regular section, I don't know how they saw the stage especially if the folks in the VIP section stood on their chairs. Each section was divided by a wire fence. ...the hitch was that the fence dividing VIP from Presidential was not long enough so all I had to do was walk to the where the fence stopped and voila, I was a presidential girl. Hey what can I say, the hall was not filled to capacity so there were a few free places in both the VIP and presidential sections.

The place was swarming with really young, too cool for school, kids. It made me feel quite old, then quite annoyed seeing as most were extremely rude. There were long intermissions between each act and they would get restless and get up from their seats more than a dozen times a minute, squeeze by you without an 'excuse me', pass things over your head, hit you, discuss loudly over you, eye you for telling them to say 'excuse me please', lol. I felt like an old woman there seriously. My friend said she wasn't going to get into argument with them in case the asked her if she knew how much their school fees cost or who their fathers were lol.

Anyway days after Dbanj, Kelly Rowland sashayed on stage with her dancers and they were really rocking the crowd until she stylishly slumped. She was singing say my name at the time and my friends decided that some Juju people must have said her name in a bid to distract and get into the concert. Immediately people surrounded her..she needed air not a hundred people choking her air supply! One of her dancers was such an alarmist, she put her hand on her head and was wailing. We seriously thought she had died or something. She was carried off the stage with a standing AC and someone fanning her.

The mood of the audience kind of mellowed after that, and after a few minutes we were told Kelly was okay and that the doctor was on the way. I would have thought they would have one on standby.

Days after once again, Sasha came on stage in a red trench coat looking outfit and with Naeto C and tried her best to get us back to where we were but there were a lot of snotty kids sitting and sulking and making faces like WTF. Its a pity that we can't support our own homegrown artists. She did really well and had a bunch of really young dancers giving us some serious steps to her song... A da ra....

Years after,(we think they call them from thier hotel rooms) Diddy came on and did his thing. He kept on saying he was home and even gave us advise.....'The most important thing is God'. Did somebody tell him how Nigerians love God? He invited about 6 people from the audience to dance with him on stage and they had so much fun! Lucky you Bubu!!!!!!! He really got us dancing again with all the classic hits, Mo money, Missing you etc.

When he was done, it was 12 am and people started filing out..either they were done or they thought it was over. The organisers had to announce that it was not over and Neyo was yet to perform.

For me Neyo was the best. He can really singgggg!!!!!! And dance too. He did this little section where the Dj played some of the songs he had written for other artists. (i'm trying to type and my mum is trying to gist...she says im ignoring her...you guys should help me beg her nowww). You should have heard us screaming..to the left to the lefttt, and I don't wannaaa beee a murderer, and a few others before he started with So sexy...he also sang a few new songs and danced all over the stage with his sexy self. (I think my mum got fed up, shes gone to take a shower).

By the time Neyo was done, my friends and I were beat. UB40 and several Nigerian artists had not performed and it was nearly 2am. They seriously took the piss with the timing. Each artist took no less than 30 minutes to come on stage. We are a patient people..that's all I can say. Even the host Kate Henshaw went home cos all of a sudden Dan Foster took over. I can't even imagine how people who got there at 11am were able to cope. That's way too long

Pictures from

http://www.clearmindstudios.com/images/portfolio/neyo.jpg

http://freddiebell.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/kelly-rowland.jpg