By Motṧelisi Sekonyela
Paballo Phakoa, popularly known by his stage name ‘Pablo DJ’ is a deejay and an event organiser who has recently angered many music lovers.
The artist had posted the prominent South African DJ De Mthuda for a show which took place at a guest house in Maseru.
This sparked a backlash on social media as fans hugely criticising Phakoa for deception.
In turn, he describes the event organising process as one of the hardest things to do.
“Among other things, what stands to be very challenging in organising an event is getting in touch with international artists that are relevant at the moment. These big, relevant artists are crowd pullers, so it is important to get them for your event so that people attend.
“But now that it is festive season, you find that most of them already have a lot of shows to attend. Therefore, they may not be able to make it or may have ridiculous demands that make it hard for event organisers from a country like Lesotho to afford them.” said Phakoa.
When asked if event organisers then falsely use these prominent artists on posters for marketing their events Phakoa said: “Let me make this one clear. You cannot put an artist on your poster and advertise your show with them without paying them 50 percent of their money.”
It is only after they confirm their presence that you have to put their pictures on posters. In the case of De Mthuda, he had confirmed all along and only cancelled with us about three days before the event, He added the sensational artists suddenly got another offer which, according to him, he could not resist.
He said the South African refunded the money and it was too late for any cancellation of the extravaganza,
But Phakoa is adamant that more events are to be held.
“If you are going to quit just because your last show did not go according to plan, then this job is not for you,” he warned.
