Why entertainment events start late

The late start of entertainment events has always been a concern to patrons that there is what is known as Malawi time. But who is to blame for this laxity in keeping time? Is it a Malawian culture? Our reporter ALBERT SHARRA finds out.

A recently highly publicised show by Nigerian artist Innocent Idibia, 2Face, is a testimony to the late start cancer.

Patrons who travelled from outside Blantyre to watch 2Face performing at BAT ground a week ago, ended up leaving the venue without watching the hip hop star performing. This was after the show that was scheduled for the afternoon ended up being a night show with the artist arriving on stage around 7pm.

Then Big Brother Africa (BBA) The Chase representative Natasha Tonthola’s welcome back party at Blue Elephant in Blantyre on Saturday started late after 11pm despite organisers advertising that the party would start at 8 pm. This was three hours late from the scheduled time and patrons complained.

Similarly, at Mibawa Café, a few weeks ago, Armstrong who was the guest artist was chased from the stage for arriving late at the show and  for poor performance.

In Lilongwe, several afternoon shows at Mungo Park have ended up being night shows and due to lack of preparedness in terms of hiring music equipment and generators in case of blackout some shows have gone all the way to dawn to appease the patrons who are usually eagerly waiting for the shows

Phindu Promotions, director Abel Kumwenda says there is usually a reason for starting late.

“For instance, our show on Independence Day had to start four hours after the planned time. But our problem should be understood. We do not have our own equipment and we rely on borrowing from bands.

“It has happened several times that we have borrowed equipment from other bands and the equipment is released late or that we are missing some equipment to suit the quality of a certain band.

“For instance, a music show featuring the Blacks cannot use the same equipment for all other artists,” said Kumwenda.

However, Kumwenda also blamed patrons for late coming saying they cannot start a show when the venue is empty.

Entertainers Promotions which is always on the road with music shows admits experiencing this trend during its shows. Director, Jai Banda said if action is not taken, the tendency will get worse.

“Entertainers Promotions is always in time when it comes to setting up equipment for music shows. However, despite that, most of our shows start late and there are several reasons to this, but the main ones are patrons and artists,” he said.

Banda aka Mr Entertainer said there is conflict between artists and patrons on who should arrive early at the venue.

He said most artists refuse to perform when the hall is empty for reputation reasons. He said they wait till the hall is full and this leads to late shows.

On the other side, Banda said most patrons are used that main artists come late on stage and so see no reason to come early.

“It is a difficult situation because there is an impression that is rooted in the minds of these two groups on time. You can observe that if a show is starting at 2 pm, people start arriving two hours later.

“Artists as well especially the guest artists arrive late,” said Banda while proposing to find ways to influence artists and patrons to come on time.

However, at Nanzikambe Arts café in Blantyre, performances start on time and they have managed to set a precedent which also forces patrons to arrive on time.

Psychologist Chiwoza Bandawe attributes the trend to psychological effect. He said there is what they call psychological effect on togetherness which is still under study.

“You can observe that the main reason that delays activities is that there are not enough people as expected. We believe in being many to succeed and as we wait for the number to grow, we delay in time. Again, if we consider the economic productivity of time, it shows that it is not valued and we lose more,” he said.

Bandawe said a process called psychological effect of adjustment to slowness and late start of events contributes to this trend. He said it is all about attitude and that the minds are used to late start of events.

Nonetheless, Bandawe said the situation can be corrected by taking advantage of the efficiency of the psychological effect to adjust. He said people adjusted to be late at events and if organisers of events step up and ensure all events start as scheduled, people will also adjust as they avoid missing part of the events.

“It is up to the organisers. When they say 2 pm, they should start the programme regardless of how many are around and in the long run people will adjust and start arriving in time for events,” said Bandawe.