Nkululeko Nkala
I was confident we would beat time. Well, not beat it per se, but at least be on it (on time). But no, we missed it by a mile.
I am talking about Bulawayo Arts awards. After the last edition one of the biggest complaints was on starting time and finish.
We swore we wanted to be an example, we emphasised it among ourselves for months leading up to the awards.
Even at 11am on the day of the awards I remember a conversation with National Arts Council Director Nicholas Moyo where he asked about time and I confidently said we would start at 18:30hrs. The rest is history.
Why is the rest history? We only started the event after 8:30pm and I spent all night avoiding meeting up with Mr N Moyo. I am still avoiding him. His exact words were, “I like the setup, now I am looking forward to the production and the time.
All this minus the time is not worth it.” Well, if anyone will see Mr Moyo and everyone that attended the event we are very sorry.
We promise next year will be different.
Please note there are a lot of good take homes from the awards, but since I have already started with the negative and apology, I should as well apologise for everything else that went wrong.
The venue was perfect for creativity in terms of setup and space, but we apologise for the cold. I remember when the night ended I had already dumped the suit jacket and gotten onto something warmer.
It did affect some people’s dressing as many would have loved to show off and not hide their expensive clothes under blankets or big jackets. We may as well move the awards to a warmer date. Watch this space.
One of the biggest sell points of RoilBAA is that it’s the biggest dress up event and people want to be special on the day. It also includes buying the most expensive ticket which is VVIP.
Again for the 3rd year we have jumbled it up. VVIP did not even feel very, very special. Many people that did not belong there found their way in people’s seats and tables.
Many that had their tables found people already seated on their paid up seats, the reason being our laxity in security again. We missed the plot. We are trying to work on a system for next year. Again we are sorry.
The VVIP ticket was supposed to come with a meal, and sadly because of the confusion many did not get eat. I would feel short changed if I had bought a VVIP ticket. Again we are sorry.
So we are always near perfect in terms of giving awards, but we also did a Steve Harvey and we apologise.
Sorry Mgcini and Tebza. Also sorry to all those that have written to us regards the Police (Fashion Police). We are back in meetings, working on RoilBAA 2020. Until next week, be safe . . . @nkuenkala 0772214373
