Thousands of Guyanese experienced high energy entertainment on Valentine’s night at the live Digicel “Experience” concert featuring Grammy-nominated R&B and Hip Hop singer Akon in the National Park, despite bothersome sound system problems.
The glitzy launching of the cell phone company in Guyana got off to a much earlier start than usual for shows in Georgetown as patrons jammed the National Park tarmac and surrounding stands. The western stand was the most populated with its direct view of the stage set up at the northern side of the venue.
Meanwhile, local entertainment industry personalities, Leonard Shim, owner of the Travellers Sound System, and Mike Fung of Mingles fame, both attributed the difficulties with sound quality to the last minute changing of the stage layout on Wednesday.
They both said that because a 12-foot catwalk was requested by the headliner artiste the stage layout was changed, causing disruption in the microphone arrangements.
It was explained that it would have taken at least six hours to reconfigure the sound arrangements, re-positioning the speaker towers, among other things, but there was just not enough time.
Shim added that Akon’s peculiar stage arrangements with a band and a DJ was unusual for these shores as well. He noted too that the band backing the superstar, Jamaican dancehall group T.O.K., did not come with an engineer so local expertise had to be employed.
However the show ran smoothly. Patrons were required to show their tickets at three checkpoints as was announced in advance.
Dressed mostly in red the ladies began to scream as Akon’s DJ Benny D, following an energetic intro, asked him to say something for the crowd. As ‘Konvict music’ came through the speakers the venue erupted in exuberant cheers.
On stage for approximately an hour, Akon’s performance featured a number of his new hit songs such as ‘Ghetto’, ‘Lonely’ and ‘Smack That’ among several others. The Senegalese-born artiste stepped on stage clad in a yellow jersey and black jeans but by the time he left he was almost naked after being subjected to the frenzied embraces of Guyanese fans.
Midway into his performance the artiste invited a few young ladies standing nearby to come on stage. He eventually took turns ‘smacking that’ with two of the very enthusiastic ladies.
Internationally-acclaimed Akon decided to get closer to his fans while performing ‘Mama Africa’. But soon enough a throng of enthused fans at the front of the stage mobbed him.
The artiste could be heard pleading with fans to let go of his clothing. As security personnel surged onto the stage his DJ demanded that everyone leave the stage as the show was going on.
Akon was hoisted onto the shoulders of a supporter some 20 feet away from the stage as fans continued surging towards the star just to touch him. One female fan shortly after the unprecedented stripping triumphantly waved a part of what looked like the artiste’s belt.
Before Akon came on, performances by T.O.K. rocked the National Park venue as the group sang their long list of hits and even some more recent tracks including ‘Footprints’.
Hailed by the New York Times as “the world’s greatest dancehall-reggae boy band,” the quartet was preceded by one of Guyana’s premier groups, X2 with Jumo and Adrian.
Also opening the concert were Rajesh and Malo who along with Gialiani performed to the satisfaction of the crowd, cementing their status as homegrown stars.
