After a recent concert held at IoBM in Karachi that featured two of the biggest singers in the country, Atif Aslam and Ali Zafar, a debate on the prevalent VIP culture has started. It was observed that the front rows were filled with VIP guests with no access to students at the front who had paid a hefty ticket price. It is ironic since these are the people for whom the concert was arranged.
After a recent concert held at IoBM in Karachi that featured two of the biggest singers in the country, Atif Aslam and Ali Zafar, a debate on the prevalent VIP culture has started. It was observed that the front rows were filled with VIP guests with no access to students at the front who had paid a hefty ticket price. It is ironic since these are the people for whom the concert was arranged.
Speaking on the issue in a recent post on social media, pop singer Ali Zafar noted, “There is a recurring culture of special or VIP seating areas at concerts, placed right in front of the stage and assigned only to ‘special guests’, faculty members, head of departments, principals and owners of institutions. Therefore, in such an arrangement, the students or indeed actual fans are almost always made to stand and watch and participate at a considerable distance from the stage, well behind the VIP or special seating which creates a huge distance between me, the artist, and them, my audience, who have often paid to be there. Please appreciate that as a performer, I cannot help but feel this defeats the very purpose of having artists such as myself perform for audiences where both of us are denied any direct interaction.”
Addressing event organizers, educational institutions and promoters, Zafar requested them to take note of the issue and not have the ‘VIP area’ in front of the stage. He asked them to allow the real audience – the students and fans – to be in front and centre.
