The FOMO was high and even the el-nino social media posts didn’t deter revellers from flocking the extremely packed Lugogo Arena. Gates were opened at 6pm and both VIP and General Happiness entrance gates had people flocking the concert. Unfortunately, one had had to walk while using their toes and preferably holding their bae’s hand as the ground was rather soggy. You would occasionally get some people trying to sell to you tickets as you walked around the stadium.
At 6pm, some VIP attendees were seated but their joy was short lived as they had to stand once the general area got flocked by tonnes of Ne-Yo fans. By 8pm, the concert was full of people with kirussia looking extremely packed as the first group of artists started hitting the stage. VIP on the other end had a fair share of people and the beer stand had revellers trying to redeem their free Bell coupons and others buying beer. The queue to get a drink wasn’t short and service got slow at times.
The energetic performances by artistes like Mun*G, Navio and Sheeba swayed the crowd that struggled to get a clear human view of the stage through the mammoth crowd. The sound was rather perfect especially when Ne-Yo came on stage and this is what kept revellers dancing and happy.
There was about an hour of only DeeJays like DJ Crisio playing music for revellers which was a good time for me to stock up some alcohol and people’s faces were filled with anxiety for Ne-Yo. Some were too anxious they started finding a way into the VIP section through a loose barricade and some got thrown back by security.
At 10:30, the screens pulled a rather intentional UMEME stunt and a voice of Ne-Yo screaming something like “awwwwww” and the crowd yelled with excitement. The struggle to see Ne-Yo was real but depending on where one stood, you could see his head at least and the typical giant screens to view his rather exotic and energetic performance.
Ne-Yo’s performance was definitely worth the Bell Lager bottles we drank to get tickets since his dancers did a good job together with his band which produced live tunes backed by what seemed like a low tone instrumental in the background. I must say the music/sound was awesome. It momentarily got everyone singing along to songs like Miss Independent and dancing along to a few new songs that Ne-Yo knew but still sounded nice. Ne-Yo sung and danced almost non stop for an hour save for the minute he used to grab a drink and talk about how he met beautiful ladies in Uganda and that this is definitely not his last time in the country. Ne-Yo climaxed with a rather ‘steamy’ performance together with his dancers and live band performance.
Well, it got muddy, cold, a dancer fell in the middle of a routine, the screens went off for a minute there and some people lost their phones which is usual for most concerts but Ne-Yo’s performance was awesome and worth remembering. Silk Events did a nice job with the stage lighting and sound, the ushers were smart and the concert was worth number of SMS you sent to redeem a ticket.
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