Sekondi-Takoradi, my beloved twin city has been branded as a community filled with frugal inhabitants that would not spend a dime on concerts.
The inhabitants have been branded as people who only indulge in free concerts and would think of 5000 different things they can do with the 50cedis they would use in purchasing a ticket.
This notion of concerts only excelling in Sekondi-Takoradi if they are free is a misconception because humans everywhere would love free stuff. So this begs the question, why do paid for concerts fail in Sekondi-Takoradi?
Firstly Sekondi-Takoradi has NO designated event center that can house a crowd of about 15,000 people, none, nada, zilch.
One might say what about the CNC building, and I would then ask the person did the government finish it? The CNC building has a lot of shortcomings. The first problem is that it has limited parking space, a bushy environment and very poor lightening at night. The building hasn’t been completed in the past twenty years and over, is currently falling apart and has a very bad acoustic that makes talking and hearing in the auditorium a burden. Another probable venue could have been the Jubilee park, but the park is currently occupied by traders who were relocated from Market Circle.
The TTU park could have been another fertile ground for hosting concerts but it is currently being converted into an astro turf, hence woe betides anyone who tries to host a concert in Sekondi-Takoradi on that field.
Secondly, another reason why we are not used to paid concerts is because of Kofi Kinaata. Kofi as the gatekeeper of western region music has consistently ‘spoilt’ the inhabitants with free concerts. If our very own Kofi does it for free, then you dear big superstar when you come to Rome you need to do what the Romans do. Some are of the belief that Kofi knows how his people are so he wouldn’t dare do a paid concert because it is more likely to flop.
If Kofi sets the pace, we will follow, making paid for huge concerts a commonality in Sekondi-Takoradi.
Thirdly, another reason we are not used to paid concerts is actually our mentality. Sekondi-Takoradi’s inhabitants have been called frugal, docile and too comfortable for so long that we have started to exhibit these traits.
These attitudes are some of the reasons why some of our communities are turning into ghost towns and our nightlife is not evolving.
We are stuck in the traditional ways of enjoyment which is a stick of khebab and a bottle of club and scared of exploring other forms of enjoyment such as go-carting, going to the cinema or even a live concert.
Other regions have evolved and become the hubs for tourism and partying and we’ve been left to be the community that stones Judas every Easter.
Even our famed Christmas in Taadi has just been limited to the masquerading outing and nothing else. Since we don’t ask for much from our leaders, they are left to give us peanuts. Don’t get me wrong, I am not being ungrateful; I am just saying change starts with us.
Demanding more from our leaders starts with us demanding more in our everyday activities.
Lastly, the organizers of most of these paid concerts have poor timing and even when they get the timing right, they tend to give us subpar concerts with poor sound and lightening and musicians screaming at us to sing their songs for them after they have arrived at 4am for a 10pm show.
Inhabitants of Sekondi-Takoradi have a very low threshold for nonsense, be late for a paid show once, we won’t show up again.
Sekondi-Takoradi has so much untapped potential to be a partying hub but if we were to address these four issues, more people would be open to paying for concerts. We really aren’t party poopers, we love to jawuley, you just need to get it right with us.
Author-Ahanta Bred
