Vodafone says 020 Live was not a flop

Vodafone Ghana has debunked claims by sections of the media and the public that the second Vodafone 020 Live Concert held on September 20, 2011 at the Dome was a flop.

Head of Corporate Communications at Vodafone Ghana, Carmen Bruce-Annan told Adom News there were communications and security challenges but “I would like to put it on record that 020 Live was not a flop - looking at the concert holistically you can tell that musically it was a great show.”
Audiences at the show posted their experience at the concert on their twitter and facebook pages pointing to poor sound quality, long period of waiting between performances, and no seats for VIP guests.

Some audiences interviewed by Adom News said things like “this show is boring” – “we want a refund” – “is this what Vodafone is going to do with the Ghana Music Awards?” and many other such comments.
Carmen Bruce-Annan admitted there were challenges that frustrated the Vodafone team itself, and they take responsibility for those challenges, but that did not make the show a flop.
“We will be sharing the concert on TV with the public very soon so people can see and judge for themselves if it flopped in terms of the musical and performance quality,” she said.
She noted that the only long wait of about 45 minutes occurred between the period when D’banj left the stage and the headline artiste, Trey Songs had to come.
Carmen Bruce-Annan explained that because there was a live set up, each of the two artistes had their own sets of equipment so D’banj’s team had to remove their equipment for Trey Songs team to fix theirs and that led to the long wait.
“For anyone who has been to such concerts elsewhere in the world, they would know that these things are normal, but in our case it was not managed well because the MC’s Eddy Blay and Amber Rose should have communicated that to the audience and told them what to expect,” she said.
She noted that the other challenge was with over subscription of VIP area and that was because people with standard tickets managed to use their connections to get seated in the VIP area and that denied those with VIP tickets.
Carmen Bruce-Annan said that was a serious security problem so Vodafone would take it up with the agencies involved and deal with it internally to ensure better performance and overall delivery next time.
“We are not event promoters – we hired an event promoter and other agencies who are responsible for these things so we will take it up with them and manage the situation internally,” she said.
She assured the public that Vodafone was committed to music in Ghana and would continue to bring great musical experiences to the public in subsequent 020 Live Concerts.
“We have promised to give you great experience at this year’s Ghana Music Awards and we will deliver on that – the hitches at this year’s 020 Live Concert should not be a yardstick to judge us on competence - you can judge us on future performance,” she said.
Carmen Bruce-Annan said Ghanaians should at least give Vodafone the benefit of the doubt for promising and delivering on two top artists – Trey Songs and D’banj, unlike other concerts in the past where the headline artist did not show up.
She said Vodafone was here for the long haul and needed all the encouragement to continue delivering quality entertainment to the public, adding that “mistakes do happen but we learn from them and do better next time and you can be sure that the next 020 Live will be better than this one.

Samuel Nii Narku Dowuona