As we have just concluded our IGNITION CONCERT for 2008
we would like to give an official statement about the event and
some of the occurrences at the end of the show. As the
production company controlling this event we accept and
take blame that there was some disorder during the main
and final act Bounty Killer due to the sound & light company
technical difficulties. We wish to clarify what happened and
make it clear as to why things unfolded the way they did.
There are international news stories that have reported
incorrectly based on a certain newspaper's spin on the
concert. We are not saying that there wasn't a problem that
caused a chain reaction of events, but there needs to be
some clarity as to what happened since the reporter was
very inadequate in doing her job. She has made statements
quoting from us when she has never officially spoken to any
representative from Wildfire Productions.
First of all there were no major problems for the night until
the sound & light company had severe problems with their
equipment. This happened about 20 minutes into Bounty
Killer's performance. The entire sound and lights shut down
due to negligence on their part. Bounty Killer showed
extreme patience and sat on the stage and waited for the
power to return. It came on again for approximately
10 minutes which Bounty hyped the crowd only for the
sound company to lose power again. Bounty, unlike his
usual self, sat down on the stage again to show the
Guyanese people that he had no intention of giving a
short performance nor intended to leave. When the sound
was back up again Bounty apologized for them and asked
the people to please be patient and that these things happen.
The crowd was with Bounty all the way, but then the sound
went down for a third time. At this time it was 2:05 a.m. and
the police said it was cut off time as they did not see the
sound getting back up again efficiently. At this time Bounty
was instructed to leave the stage, and this upset the patrons
there as they wanted more of Bounty Killer. This frustration
led to bottles being hurled at the stage in protest of Bounty
coming off prematurely. One newspaper made it appear
that bottles were thrown at Bounty Killer because of his lyrics
and performance but this was not the case. As we can
report the bottles were hurled as a result of the power outage
from the sound system so many times, and for the fact that
people did not get to see the main act Bounty Killer which
they wanted to see.
As there was no power for the emcee to call for order on the
mic, the police took matters into their hands and fired off
some warning shots to disperse the crowd and to stop the
bottle throwing before someone got hurt. This worked
effectively as the bottles stopped immediately and the
crowd exited the venue. People left safely as there were no
reports from the hospital of injuries the next day.
While the problems that were encountered are not the
direct fault of Wildfire Productions we do accept some
amount of responsibility. We understand that we need to
be more stringent with our suppliers such as the sound &
light company since they have caused us much
embarrassment and potential danger for not being
efficient with their equipment. Also, the bar service that
were serving beverages deterred from our agreement and
sold them from the bottles instead of plastic cups.
This was totally unacceptable and they too had endangered
persons there. However, as this has already happened
we can only implement a more strict and severe penalty
clause on suppliers who do not work efficiently and
accordingly to our instructions.
We would like to thank the thousands of fans who came
out to the Ignition Concert and as reports had it, they
enjoyed themselves thoroughly with the exception of the
ending part of the show. We once again apologize for
the chain reaction of events that occurred and will work
harder to ensure that it doesn't repeat itself.
WILDFIRE PRODUCTIONS TEAM
