Burna Boy saves the day after chaos at DStv Delicious Festival
Long queues to enter, to buy food
If it wasn’t for Nigerian superstar Burna Boy’s Saturday performance, the DStv Delicious Festival would’ve been a flop.
The much-anticipated event of the year kicked off to a horrible start, from attendees complaining about the long queues to gain entry into the venue or making use of the bathrooms – to the terrible experience of standing for long hours just to buy food, which clearly defeated the whole purpose of a food festival.
The chaos, however, didn’t end there. The queues to the VIP area came to a standstill due to fake tickets flagged by event organisers.
But that wasn’t the only issue, general access tags along with VIP tags ran out, which led to more delays in gaining access into Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit in Johannesburg, which caused a traffic jam on the roads leading to the venue.
To add more to the ordeal, festival-goers also had to queue for long hours in the scorching sun to load their howler tickets which caused more delays.
Some took out their frustrations about the poor logistics and management on Twitter.
The number of complaints lodged on social media prompted the event organisers to issue an apology on Twitter on Saturday, first day of the festival, which read: “We are aware that the VIP entry is taking longer than expected.
“Additional security processes are being implemented due to fake tickets and unauthorised tickets.”
While the event organisers did all they could to salvage the situation, it was headline act Burna Boy who became the “redemptive highlight of the disappointing day one”.
The Nigerian superstar stepped on stage wearing a cool red and white fur jacket with a matching shirt and formal black pants.
As his voice met the microphone, his vocals lit up the Grand Prix Circuit, leaving an unbelievable once-in-a-lifetime ambience in the air. After performing two songs, Burna Boy paused his band to tell the crowd “how good it felt to be back in SA after a seven-year hiatus”.
This is after the Kilometre singer vowed in 2019 that he’d never set foot back in the country ever again over xenophobic attacks at the time.
Big-selling Burna Boy went on to perform most of his hits, from Ye to a little snippet of his verse on rapper AKA’s song
All Eyes on Me, but it was his current hit Last Last that captured the hearts of the crowd as its “Shayooooo” line filled up the venue.
Day two of Delicious Festival was a lot smoother as festivalgoers experienced a more relaxed, efficient day with food queues being bearable.
American singers Angie Stone and Babyface set the mood for the perfect Sunday “Soul Session” which fitted the mood of the day.
As Stone paid homage to our “black brothers” with her song
Brotha, legendary Babyface mesmerised the crowd with his hits and ’80s and ’90s twostep dancing. Media personality Thando Thabethe was among a few celebs we noted. She went for a more “cool girl chic” look, with a leopard print silk top and a long black semisee-through skirt.
Celebrity chef Siba Mtongana wore an elegant pink short bubble-like dress that she says was both comfortable for her to cook in while looking stunning for the VIP guests she was cooking for in the DStv lounges.