Mismanagement mars Atif Aslam’s London concert

LONDON: Popstar Atif Aslam’s London concert was marred by mismanagement and chaos, as several issues spoiled the otherwise super singing display by the pop sensation.

Around 1,000 fans of Atif Aslam waited for about three hours outside the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, west London.

The fans started queuing from 630PM for the gate opening at 7PM but at least 1,000 of them were unable to get in time for the concert as they were told by the venue management that their tickets cannot be scanned on the machine for entry and therefore they couldn’t get in the time.

After waiting patiently for over 90 minutes in extreme cold, the fans protested and some of them clashed with the security. Neither the security nor the venue management had any answers to the questions of fans.

Concerts in Rotterdam, Birmingham, London and Manchester were organised by the Holland-based BrightBeat Company but the management company’s staff disappeared from the venue and had no answers.

The concert started at around 7:30PM but hundreds of fans remained stuck outside the venue in cold weather till 9 30PM – and by that time the concert was nearing its end.

On the other side, around 2,000 fans were able to pass through the security and checks and managed to get to their seats before 8PM. Inside the venue, hundreds of ticket holders found that their seats had already been occupied by the people who also carried the same number of seats in the same row and in the same bays. Shejahat Khan of BrightBeat, the company which had arranged this event, blamed Eventbrite and Eventim Apollo for the mismanagement. He blamed that around 780 tickets were not passed to the venue on time by Eventbrite. He said the Eventbrite, which sold tickets of the event according to its contract with BrightBeat, failed to live by its obligations and created huge discomfort to people who had bought the expensive tickets.

When asked that the event was organised by BrightBeat and it was the responsibility of his company to facilitate the fans, Shejahat Khan said he was let down by the Eventbrite but accepted that there was chaos both inside and outside the venue.

“Throughout my management team tried to resolve the issue. We had to print nearly 800 tickets at the last minute and the scanning machines didn’t accept these tickets. We had to set up a new system to get the people in. I accept that there were failures.” Asked if BrightBeat will be reimbursing to those who were unable to get to their seats and missed more than half of the concert, Shejahat Khan said that nobody will be reimbursed but “we may probably offer free tickets to fans in future”.

Inside the sold-out venue, Atif Aslam’s devoted fans – men, women, old and young – remained in their seats or stood throughout till the singer sang his last song at 11pm. Atif Aslam dazzled his fans by performing a good concert. Accompanied by his full band, he performed his legendary Bollywood songs, Coke Studio reworks.

He sang his top hits live including his world-famous Coke Studio hit ‘Wohi Khuda Hai’, ‘Tu Jaane Na’ and ‘Tera Hona Laga Hoon’.

Atif Aslam ended the concert with an extended version of the first ‘Jal’ song ‘Aab Tau Aadat Se Hai’ that pushed him and Goher Mumtaz to fame for the first time in 2004.

The News reached out to Shahzad Aslam who is the brother of Atif Aslam for comment but he did not respond.