Founder of 3Music Awards, Sadiq Abdulai Abu, has come out to disclose what caused the major setback that delayed the just-ended 3Music awards show for close to an hour.
According to the event organizer, there was a “major technical hitch” that delayed the start of the main event at the awards night. He averred that it was one phenomenon that any event producer wouldn’t want to remember. Sadiq disclosed that the technical hitch happened because their OB Van encountered a major technical glitch and even their “backup plan wasn’t working”. He revealed that at that point in time, one of his close associates was almost “to the point of tears” and said they needed “to get down and pray”.
Sadiq mentioned that although the organizers, performers, and everybody involved in the production was absolutely ready, and everything was double-checked, patrons of the event had to wait several hours before the main event took off because of that particular hitch.
“Everything was ready, our scripts were ready three weeks before the day. We were ready to go. We had done a dry-run on Friday between 10 PM and 5 AM. Everybody had come to do their dry run; everybody, except KiDi. We came back in the morning to check everything. We tested the OB Van. We did everything again then we started the preshow, I mean the drip carpet. The pre-show went well. The OB van was moving. Then when we ended the preshow, we were supposed to do 15 minutes of commercials… and then after that, we take the performance of Blacko and then we continue. We had planned everything”.
Sadiq Abdulai
Further narrating what happened, Sadiq explained that after ten minutes, he called the OB van and told them the 15-minutes commercial was too long. Therefore, after the tenth minute, the technical team should cut the commercial and start the show. It was there that he was told that there was an issue with the OB Van.
“Ezekiel Tetteh who is the head of my production said cool down, there is a problem we have to fix. I asked him what time will they be done because there is no time. He said about 20 minutes and I said we can’t do 20 minutes; a maximum of 5 minutes. He said, okay ten minutes. After ten minutes, when it was not working, I went into the OB Van and I was like guys what is going on, what is happening? They said ‘when we were just about to begin, the mixer shut down’. So, I was like we have a backup plan, the small machine that we had brought could take 8 cameras but we were doing 13 cameras because we had the multiple stages, five stages in one. So, I was willing for us to move with the 8 cameras. That also was not working”.
Sadiq Abdulai
Sadiq further narrating his unforgettable story, revealed that while he was waiting to solve the major issue, he picked up his phone and called his dad, who encouraged him not to be wary.
“I went into my car and I started to pray. While praying, my dad called me for a few minutes and told me that it was a temporal setback, things will come back to normal, everything will go according to plan [and] I should just maintain my composure. A few minutes after the prayers, one of the boys came back to me and said, it looks like we are back. Fortunately, the guy that designed the OB van is an investor and our partner and so we had to reach out to him as well. Then we started the production”.
Sadiq Abdulai
However, it seemed misfortune had just knocked on Sadiq’s door as another setback happened.
“After Sherif’s performance again, the sound went back. So, we paused a bit, we went in, and realized that a particular cable had been removed. Everybody may have their conspiracy theories, but for me, the way I think about things, I’m positive about things”, Sadiq recounted.
Regardless of the glitches and the long delay that was witnessed at the 2022 3Music Awards, the show saw some great performances from a host of Ghanaian musical artists.
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