In a highly anticipated concert bringing one of the biggest stars of the moment in East Africa, Diamond Platinumz, to Brussels as part of a European tour, hundreds of fans from Central and East African communities living in Belgium had booked their tickets to see their idol. As part of the tour, Brussels was a logical choice, given the large central African communities in the city. There is a vast Congolese community in central Brussels, a legacy of the colonial history the Congo shares with Belgium. There are also sizable Rwandese, Burundian and Swahili speaking communities.
The Tanzanian singer Diamond Platinumz is an international award winning Bongo Flava superstar with large fan bases both across Africa and in Europe and America. For many fans, this was a wonderful opportunity to see their idol perform for the first time on Belgian soil. It was clear on the night that the concert goers had dressed up remarkably for the special occasion.
The chosen venue for the concert was the Brussels Event Brewery, a large hall with a 4000 people capacity situated in Molenbeek St Jean. The doors to the venue opened at 10pm and the concert was scheduled to begin at 1am. However, by 3.30am, the star singer had yet to appear on stage and some tired and disappointed fans were taking to the exits and asking for their money back as they could not endure any longer to wait for the artist they had paid to see.
Surprisingly, they were refused refunds. When questioned, Jean-Claude from Big Dream Partyz promotion company and organizer of the event, told the Brussels Times that he “somehow needed to make money out of the event” and would therefore not reimburse any ticket holders.
The Brussels Times
