After 20 months or so of silence, the city night live events finally returned on Saturday with Jamaican reggae dancehall vocalist Shauna ‘Etana’ McKenzi performing at the Pamoja Festival.

The super-hyped event which went down at the Ngong Racecourse was a cocktail of disappointments and glimpses of what would have otherwise been an amazing concert had everything gone by book.

Etana’s fifth return to Kenya was supposed to be memorable and special in many ways. First it was her first international tour since the pandemic and which she is reportedly to have pocketed around Sh3.5 million.

But more importantly was the fact that Etana flew from the United States where she resides, to come promote her eighth studio album Pamoja, in which she featured three Kenyan artistes Naiboi, Wyre and Michael Bundi.

Naiboi who has just released his latest EP, Otero and Wyre were among the eighteen local acts who had been lined up to take to stage before the main headliner Etana.

Kareka the Entertainer, DJ Chroniqs, VJ Chacha, DJ Tush, DJ Mash, Kris Darling Gravity Band, Double Trouble, Trenchtown, DJ Riley, Brownskin gal among others performers were also part of the draft. The performances had been slated to begin at 12 noon and proceed all the way to 12am when Etana was to climax the event. Only three of the local artistes performed but after Etana had exited the stage.

Most of the revellers at the poorly attended event began streaming to the venue at around eight pm. At this time, the sound at the venue had gone off and there was no performer on stage.

Revellers had to wait for over two hours as they kept themselves busy imbibing far too many pitchers of beers, gin and whiskeys. There was no technical issue with the sound as Nation Africa later established.

“The sound was okay, there was no issue at all. Problem is that the organisers hadn’t cleared paying the balance of hiring the sound provided by The Parrot Group. The organisers wanted to sort them after the show but The Parrot Group heard none of that.” One of the Emcees at the event told Nation. Africa.

When the issue was finally resolved at around 11pm, Kenyan dancehall star Wyre was expected to step up and cheer up the crowd that had now grown tired of the shambles and were demanding for some live performances.

“This is one of the most disappointing reggae concerts I have been to. I came here with a lot of expectation tonight being the first live concert in such a long time. Then this is what we get? A fan named Yolanda lamented.