Over the last few years, our country has played host to a number of international artists ranging from actors to musicians to performers. India is now a viable market for such events involving international performers and artists and even sports events that we’ve only dreamt of witnessing.
On the flip-side,over the past few years, our nation’s capital has played host to a series of embarrassing organizational blunders and fiascos that have clearly, shamed the pride of this great nation. We have seen soaring tempers of the common man, accusations of corruption, unprofessional behavior on behalf of the performer as well as lack of organizational skill.
The situation seems like the state is supposedly “jinxed”. I would like to refute this claim.Case in point: The recent fiasco at the F1 Metallica concert as well as the F1 event is a worthy example to analyze the break-down of the organizational framework.
For an event that was being publicized for almost a year, the provisions SHOULD have been flawless.
But sadly, this was not to be. On the day of the Metallica concert, the security barricade setup by the organizer was not enough to hold back a crowd of 25000 Metallica fans and inevitably, led to a major security hazard, both for the performer and their crew as well as the audience themselves.
The riot followed and so did crass remarks about how Metallica disrespected their fans, how the crowd was uncivilized and how the organizer failed to deliver. BUT the next day, Metallica played in Bangalore. The event was a success. The organizer was the same. So where does the problem really lie?
Another incident would be the recent Pitbull concert held in Noida. According to reports, the artist reached 5 hours late and performed only for 45 minutes. The incident was termed as an insult by fans present at the venue.But does anyone know, that the provisions given to the artist and his crew were sub-standard and so was the equipment meant for him to use? In both situations, the events were mis-managed.
My theory is that in our state, it’s more about filling your pockets as opposed to delivering what is promised. Please note that this is only an assumption.
It is a well known fact that event such as these have always had problems in Delhi due to various reasons ranging from security issues to inadequate facilities to permissions not being granted in time.
In order for events of such scale to take place, a lot of money is involved. From renting the venue to paying the artist, to taking permissions from the local authority, everyone needs to be paid.Knowing the reputation of our government officials and public servants, especially in Delhi and NCR, I would not be surprised if everyone wanted a piece of the pie before it reaches the customer. The sad reality is, most of the money is spent on pleasing the authority and less on arranging proper provisions like security, proper venue, etc.
Apart from the obvious issue of corruption, there is the issue of unqualified organizers. In today’s scenario, every second day, a new events agency is born. The mindset behind such ventures is to capitalize on this lucrative market, however, Event-management, being a profitable industry, is also one that requires a multitude of skills ranging from operational management to a skilled creative backbone.
The planning framework behind such events needs to be absolutely fool-proof and adaptable to last minute contingencies keeping in mind the need to deliver what is promised to the customer.
How soon will we see this change, I do not know. Till then, we can only wait and hope, that like our peers in Mumbai and Bangalore, we too would be worthy of a well organized concert.
