Sri Lankans attending the Enrique Iglesias concert in Colombo were in for a rude shock due to ‘unbelievably poor organizing’, with many fans who purchased highly inflated tickets being left stranded at the entrance.
The Lankan audience who had lined up since 5 PM this evening had not been permitted entrance according to many till close to three hours after.
The queues for the cheaper tickets were still visible when the concert had finally commenced at 9.32 PM.
Those who had purchased tickets at ridiculously high prices including that of 35,000LKR had also received the same treatment, after not being allowed into the stadium till around 8 PM, reports and material posted online show.
The organizer, Live events, is a partnership between former Lankan Cricket Stars Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawrdena and Riyaz Shah (Shaq) of Yes FM fame.
The events Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/events/1521982984792491/has been inundated with many of the audience venting their anger on it and through other platforms on social media.
A member of the audience wrote;
Following are some of the comments on the Fan page;
Amden / December 23, 2015
This is just the tip of the iceberg. The peoples’ heroes Sanga and Mahela are not as squeaky clean as they try to make you believe.They are good cricketers, not Gods.They are also not above the law. They should pay the Municipal tax of Rs 29 million and apologize to the people for ripping them off. More to follow from this duo to expose their wolves in sheeps’ clothing image.
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JACOB / December 23, 2015
Karma is a b5r2722ch. Now you owe the Government too. hahahahahaha
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Backlash / December 24, 2015
Enrique Iglesias is now a fading star in Spanish-speaking countries – mainly in Latin America. In non-Latin Europe and North America he hardly has a following. His main strength is his ageing famous father – the handsome Singer Julio.
Colombo fans paying Rs.35,000 each??? No one goes to these shows alone. If 3 go for the show, it costs over Rs.100,000 – a large sum even to the upper middle class. This is simply outrageous. Clearly, a lot of drug, black and looted money is in the hands of many. It is possible the shrwed organisers aimed at the issues of social climbers like Kudu Mervin, Aiyo Sirisena, the Rajapakses, Senaratnas, Rambukwellas, SBD’s, Mustaphas, Hakeems and other new-rich – desperately hungry for social recognition.
The upper middle class Colombo social set is seriously in need of seeing current world class talent. And so they get those fastly spiralling downhill – Cliff Richards, Englebert, Shaggy and the like.
Consider that great sensation Tom Jones is in the European circuit and is reported to be singing even for $5,000 for a night.
Most of these entertainers that come here make it to Colombo after their schedules in the different cities in India – where there is now a very large English-speaking middle class young population. Our organisers have doubtlessly made a killing.
The Enrique Concert should have been priced at Rs.2,000, Rs.3,500 and
Rs.5,000. A very small number for the super rich at Rs.10,000. Anything above is unconscionably fleecing the audience. I am sorry our popular Cricketers Mahela and Sangakkara have lent their names to exploit our citizens – not to mention Organisers of poor mettle.
Backlash
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Steve / December 25, 2015
1st it was Politics, Cricket, then Sports, Religion and now Strike and the latest now is Music played out to from the Gallery. Its all Money and Power
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Raj / December 26, 2015
Hero worshiping cricket fans have made present day cricketers some kind of god. Not satisfied with the millions of tax free money they are paid for playing cricket & the other perks given to them for bringing ‘glory’ to the country, they exploit their popularity to the max with all kinds of commercial ventures. We only have to look at Aravinda, the Ranathunga brothers, Sanath, & now these two, to see how ‘successful’ businessman they have become.
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Backlash / December 27, 2015
Media reports Enrique has been paid close to Rs.90 million. This is a colossal sum. Wonder how this money was taken out by Enrique., Was it thru legal banking channels or else? CMC claims they were underpaid by way of taxes. Looks like greed has taken over our two beloved youngsters Mahela and Sangakkara reminding us of the old saying
“where wealth accumulates men decay”
Backlash
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