UK to partner Burna Boy for ‘next’ Lagos show

Impressed with the success of the Burna Boy ‘Lagos Loves Damini’ January 1 show, the UK government has begun talks with its organisers toward exploring a partnership that would shore up the entertainment sector in Nigeria.

Steps toward the partnership kicked off in a meeting held at the British Deputy High Commission in Lagos on Friday.

At the meeting were Creative Economy Catalyst Ltd, the main promoter of the show, Mr Kayc

ee Kennedy; Country Director, UK Department for International Trade, Chim Chalemera.

In a remark, Kennedy listed the positives including the fact that the show was the first African Show listed on Burna Boy’s official website + ticketing.

He also pointed out that the show was the biggest outdoor music concert with over 30,000 audiences.

It also had the biggest car parking in an event – over 11,000 cars – and was also the pioneer single source online ticketing via wallet, he added.

Other major positives included the fact that there were no reported casualties, theft, sexual assault or sexual harassment.

Kennedy, however, observed that in spite of the positives, there were some challenges and learning points.

He said that the desire to address the main challenges and negatives encountered at the Lagos show necessitated the visit to the British Deputy High Commission to meet with the UK Department for International Trade and discuss possible collaboration for future events.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the issue of inadequate power supply and the power surge that led to an outage that took off a good number of equipment was discussed extensively.

Also discussed was the need for logistics support in areas such as infrastructure which includes equipment hire and the standardisation of such equipment in a bid to meet minimum international standards.

The meeting also looked at vendor sourcing and management.