COVID-19: African Dance Concert 2020 ‘ll not hold — Organiser

The Smile Global Entertainment, Organisers of the African Dance Concert 2020, have attributed the cancellation of the event scheduled for November to effects of COVID-19 pandemic.

Wilfred-Brown Chinedu, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Smile Global Entertainment, made disclosure this to our reporter on Friday in Lagos.

Chinedu said that sponsorship became a problem as individuals and corporate organisations were not able to live up to their promises due to the economic situation occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“COVID-19 which resulted in months of lockdown affected us in a very big way, to the extent that we had no choice other than to cancel the event.

“We used the first quarter of this year to prepare and approached a couple of organisations and individuals. They gave us their words, but suddenly Coronavirus came and twisted everything.

“And we cannot go against the COVID-19 precautionary measures put in place by the government, particularly social distancing, travel bans and crowd control because of the pandemic,” he said.

According to him, the event, a TV Reality Show, with the theme, “Stand Against Illicit Drug Abuse in Africa’’, aims to address rising cases of drug abuse and incessant rape in the country.

He noted that the event would have been a campaign ground for youths involved in indecent activities to get a reorientation toward turning a new leaf as leaders of tomorrow.

Chinedu regretted the development but expressed optimism that the event would hold in 2021 to further promote African culture, traditional dance and rebranding indigenous creative dance.