Day 2 of the 2022 edition of the Afronation festival has been in the trend on social media, after the event was forced to come to an early close in Accra at the early hours of December 31, 2022.
The massively attended concert was in its final day after a buzzing ‘Day One’ that saw a dozen local and international artistes performing to the teeming crowd.
Organisers of the event have explained the rationale behind their decision to end their mega concert abruptly on its second day at the Black Star Square.
Unlike its opening day on Thursday December 29, which had all artists showing up on stage to entertain patrons, the Day of the event was stopped by the organizers due to what they explained as ‘safety issues’.
According to the event host, Adesope Olajide aka Shopsydoo, organisers after identifying several security lapses, were left with no option but to take such an unpopular decision to safeguard the lives of its patrons.
Shopsydoo further disclosed that the organisers realized that the crowd at the main entrance had become too huge to control, a situation which gave way for some miscreants to openly disregard the event procedures. He said, the concert had to be brought to an end to avoid a possible disaster.
Adesope stated that Afro Nation prioritises human life above all other things, and informed the motive behind it taking the decision based on safety concerns.
The announcement was made as patrons waited for Afropop superstars Rema and Asake to perform after French-Congolese singer Dadju’s performance.
Prior to that, were performances by Black Sherif, Camidoh and Stonebwoy, kidi, Gyakie, Kuami Eugene amongst others, which were all incident-free.
Day One Of The Event
Day one of Afronation began with a bang and booming performances from the day’s headlining act, Meek Mill, who gave a performance that was nothing short of outstanding.
Additionally, there were equally great music presentations from the likes of Nigeria’s Tiwa Savage, Cky, Oxlade, Ghana’s team of Kuami Eugene and Gyaki. South Africa’s dancer, Kamo Mphela also gave some energetic acts on stage.
On social media, people are angry at the turn of events, blaming the organizers for giving them a raw deal by truncating their experience because of ‘outsiders.’
Widely believed to be the biggest outdoor festival dedicated to Afropop, the urban beach festival aims to unite the African diaspora through music and culture, and made its return to the country three years after its inception.
Since its inception, Afronation Ghana continues to pride itself as the biggest platform for the celebration of Afrobeats music.
This is not the first time a safety scare is threatening a concert in Ghana this month. On 10 December, Afrobeats singer, Wizkid, failed to show up at an Accra Sports Stadium show he had been billed to headline, citing similar reasons.
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