WATCH: ‘Marula organisers full of cr#p’ says Bucie

What promised to be one of the biggest festivals in Limpopo on this year’s local entertainment calendar, headlined by lionized rappers and house singer, Kwesta, Sjava, and Bucie, turned out to be a poorly attended event as compared to the previous two years.

Speculation and scandal have surrounded the annual Marula Festival recently with some media personalities suggesting that a huge looting was on going and that the event was neither properly marketed nor organized.

Despite the media at first not allowed access near the stage, but only in barricaded areas with minimal view of the stage, and having to walk about 200 meters to move from one barricaded area to the next, the security seemed to have not been properly briefed as to what the media are there for.

In one instance a lady, who identified herself as head of security, was seen forcefully pulling a journalist away from the front of the stage and trying to grab his camera.

As if this was not bad enough, the actual blow came about at around 02:15 when the ‘easy to love’ hit maker, Bucie, angrily said:

“Your organizers and promoters are all full of cr#p” on stage.

Watch: ‘Marula organisers full of cr#p’ says Bucie

An attempt by the HERALD to get Bucie’s comment, after her performance, as to why she blamed the organizers and promoters, was unsuccessful as the acclaimed house artist said that she does not want to talk about it.

Not only was there bad mouthing from Bucie but also from some stall owners in the general section.

“I paid a lot of money to have a stall in here, with hopes that I would be making enough profit but I barely even made the money I paid to be here,” said one stall owner who wished to remain anonymous.

“Look at how many chickens I still have on the stand, who will buy these as everybody is leaving now? This thing [dance movement] was not planned properly,” another stall owner asked the HERALD.

Despite this setback, some artists did their best to save the dance movement and turned the entire event into a ‘well, it was worth it’.

Some revelers said it was supposed to draw a huge crowd since Sjava, the BET award winner, was one of the most loved artists on the continent, and blamed it on organizers for not marketing the event properly.

Mohale Mthembu, a big Sjava fan, said although many people as compared to previous festivities did not show up, it was the music festival of the year.

“It was amazing and I enjoyed it from the beginning to the end. This was one of the best shows ever in Phalaborwa because I did not see a lot of fights and people misbehaving,” said Mthembu, adding that all the performances were excellent.

READ: Phalaborwa: It’s Marula Festival time

A friend of Mohale’s also confirmed that he had enjoyed it and that he did not have trouble entering the stadium, as everything according to him was properly set up.

“It was easy for us to access the stadium and we were not pushed around, and that for me is proper security measures taken,” said the friend who wished to remain anonymous.

LDET responded as follows: 

“The Department is currently not aware of any poor attendance at the 2019 Marula Festival Dance Movement. Kindly feel free to furnish the Department with a Report fully detailing the headcount attendance in comparison with Phalaborwa Herald’s preferred headcount. The Department usually loads 5000 tickets on sale for the first weekend. In terms of the ticket sales, 2019 Marula Dance Movement was not different from the previous years. The Department is currently running a Marula Festival campaign which commenced on Friday, 22 February to Saturday, 2nd March 2019. A Departmental report will only be consolidated once the Campaign has concluded. The Department remain satisfied with the observed masses and tourists who made their way to Limpopo, Mopani, Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality with the aim of partaking in the economic upliftment initiatives of the Annual Marula Festival.”