Afro Nation Organizers ‘Forced’ To End Massive Concert Prematurely Over Safety Concerns
Day Two of the Afro Nation concert in Accra ended suddenly on Saturday morning to prevent a stampede and other unanticipated public safety issues.
Due to an unexpectedly large attendance, the festival’s organizers had to cut it short. There were concerns about maintaining order in the massive crowd as intruders were trying to break through the barrier.
Camidoh and KiDi both gave riveting performances, and Black Sherif too had a spirited entrance.
There was a great deal of excitement at the gates of Afro Nation until it was nearly midnight, but things died down after that. Day 2 of the exhibition was not as smoothly organized as Day 1, and there was a lot of pushing, tugging, and shoving.
But just as things were about to take a major step forward with the performance of Nigeria’s Asake, the organizers abruptly called it a night, giving the grounds of safety and crowd control.
Even though it was already past midnight, the crowd seemed to be becoming larger both outside the main entrance and within the arena, prompting the organizers to cancel the event out of concern for the safety of the party guests. Reports of people passing out due to weariness in the crowd were not exaggerated.
The event’s organizers made an announcement to the crowd, saying, “At this time, it has gotten too much for security and the police that we’ve got back there.”
“As I mentioned earlier, it doesn’t matter what is going on there. If any of you leave this place in a body bag, that would be on us, and that is one thing we don’t want to happen.”
“At this point, I want you to understand that the reason we are ending this show is for your own safety. Right now it is crazy outside and we want to make sure you guys leave in the safest way possible,” the organisers announced.
