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Melissa Mpofu Showbiz Editor
WITH just a week left before what was tipped to be one of Africa’s biggest festivals’ kicks off, organisers of the TribeOne Dinokeng Festival in South Africa have announced that the event will no longer be taking place.The event was set to take place from September 26 to 28 in Tshwane with over 200 artistes including Winky D, America’s Nicki Minaj, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, J Cole and Kid Ink having confirmed their participation.

Fans and artistes who had already geared up for the festival hoping to see the “Anaconda” live on African soil for the first time were left in the lurch after organisers cited a lack of service delivery promised by the City of Tshwane (CoT).

“TribeOne Festival regrets to announce that the inaugural TribeOne Festival, set to take place in Cullinan on 26, 27 and 28 September 2014, has been cancelled. The event was to be hosted by the City of Tshwane.

“Site preparation and related infrastructure development required to host the festival, being the responsibility of the CoT, fell behind schedule to a material extent, such that it was no longer realistically possible to stage and deliver the festival to the scale and quality that the organisers had always planned,” said Yolisa Pasipanodya — on behalf of the organisers, Rockstar 4000.

“TribeOne Festivals apologises to all of those who were looking forward to the Festival — both the ticket holders, and the international and local performing artistes who were booked by TribeOne Festivals for the event.”

The City of Tshwane responded saying TribeOne festival organisers had chosen an open space which had no infrastructure for the venue and requested the city to develop roads, install water supply and electricity and prepare the stage area, all of which the city delivered.

“Although the City has, in good faith, supported the festival by providing a venue for the festival, installing the necessary infrastructure, and making an agreed financial contribution, the City recently learnt with shock of the event organisers’, led by Sony Music Entertainment Africa, unilateral decision not to proceed with the staging of the mega music festival.

“The organisers had chosen an open space which had no infrastructure whatsoever for the venue, and requested the City to develop roads, install water supply and electricity and prepare the stage area, all of which the City delivered,” the City of Tshwane said in a statement.
They said they would challenge the cancellation of the event.

Speaking on behalf of Winky D — his manager, Jonathan Banda, said the news had come as a blow to them.

“We had prepared for the festival, especially our slot on the last day of the event. But we understand the organisers’ decision to cancel the event and will be looking forward to working with them in future,” Banda said.

He, however, said although they were disheartened, they were grateful to the organisers for having invited them to perform.

“The fact that we were invited to perform at this festival which was meant to attract over 200 world class artistes is a bonus for us. It shows we have sent a good message out there in terms of our good performances,” he said.

Winky D was the only Zimbabwean included on the TribeOne festival line up.

The cancellation of the much-hyped festival attracted mixed reaction from those who had already purchased tickets to the three-day event with most of them saying they were gutted.

Run Jozi rapper AKA who was set to perform at the festival told followers on Twitter: “LMAO! You can’t possibly troll me for TribeOne being cancelled . . . I got paid. What did you get?”

Comedian Shampoonizer (@TipsnTones) quipped on his Twitter “TRIBEONE CONCERT IS CANCELLED!!! If u were hoping to see ANACONDA then try NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC shemm”.

Organisers have, however, promised to reimburse all ticket holders although details on the process were not immediately available.