What went wrong in Jerash this year? There seems to be a fall back in the number of fans that attended the prestigious Jordanian festival making performances by some singers to turn into failure. Three major Arab singers did not expect this kind of outcome where they had to let people enter for free in order to fill up the theater.
According to the London daily Elaph, whether it was Egyptian singer Hani Shaker or Tunisian singer Latifa or Lebanese singer Assi Hilani they all were surprise and shocked to have such a small number of fans that bought tickets to come and attend their performances.
All three singers gave permission to the management of the festival to have people enter for free in order to fill up the empty seats. The singers blame it on the management of the Festival that they did not do enough advertisement in order to attract fans.
Who will pay off the festival’s lost is a question that needs to be answered. Since all three concerts did not sell even half the number of tickets the blame fell right back at the management of the festival. However, Adel Imam’s play “Body Guard” was a great success, which brought relief to the management of the festival. The tickets for Adel Imam’s play, all three days, were sold out.
The singers blamed the Festival and said that they did not get paid for their concerts. Yet, Lubna El Far, part of the festival’s administration, denied such accusations. She made clear that all singers got paid the full payment. The singers usually get paid a portion of their wage before they get up on stage then once the concert is over with they get the rest of the money.
Lubna EL far dared any singer to come out and say that they were not paid. She says that she has legal proofs in order to prove what she says.
On the other hand the management blames the negative outcome of the festival on the instability in the region. Last year the festival was canceled because of the war on Lebanon.
Egyptian singer Hani shaker was shocked to know that only 35 tickets were sold for his concert. Shaker gave permission to the festival management to open the doors for the public. Such a step might be fine for the singer, yet a great loss for the festival since they rely on the money that comes from these concerts. Shaker was not pleased to know that his concert was aired live on the Jordanian channel. Shaker’s concert was the same day as the grades for the senior year “Tawjihi” came out, which made people choose not to be there.
Tunisian singer Latifa accused the management of not paying her the full payment. Lubna says that the singer gets paid either way whether the music artist have a successful concert or not. Latifa’s fans started to get out of the theater, where she believes that such reaction happened because they wanted it to happen. However, the reason behind the fans leaving the theater is that Latifa was 3 hours late. People got sick of waiting especially those who have small kids with them.
On the other hand the festival just started it and a judgment cannot be made just by those three concerts.
