One Love Peace Festival branded 'a joke'

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11 April 2012

'One Love Peace Festival had all the ingredients to be a truly memorable day... it was, but only for completely the wrong reasons.'

That was one of many negative opinions posted on Twitter by disgruntled fans who attended the 'history making' concert at Wembley Arena on Sunday.

Around 13,000 people descended on the north London venue to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the passing of Bob Marley and to support the fight against gun and knife crime in youth culture.

Despite the positive message the crowd became restless early on with the plethora of speeches and persistent reminding by the hosts that "we must thank Lyca-Mobile, our sponsors for sponsoring this event."

One speech that was particularly poorly received was from Ray Lewis of the Mayor's Office, who was promptly booed by the crowd en-mass before making a hasty exit.

Three young, inspiring guest speakers from the Not Another Drop campaign made valiant and heartfelt pleas to end gang-related deaths and they received a well deserved standing ovation.

After almost eight hours of waiting Busta Rhymes then finally arrived on stage.

Despite bringing the house down, Busta was asked to end his set early but the Break Ya Neck star refused to leave the stage and said: "This the first time in three years that I have been to the UK and I aint ready to stop yet," to which the audience cheered loudly.

Next up was Tottenham MC Skepta who struggled to match the energy of Busta but still found time to explain to everybody just why the concert was operating almost two hours behind schedule.

"I was supposed to do a longer set but was told to cut it short due to a shambles with the organisation."

Skepta also tweeted whilst backstage: "I swear on my life I wanted to leave Wembley Arena, but I had to do at least 7 minutes for all the people that came there to see me.. LOVE!!"

It appeared that due to the poor time management of the organisers, the UK artists were getting their set times shortened and some, such as Bashy, were cut altogether.

London singer Princess Nyah was pushed on stage over three hours late and was clearly unable to perform fully as Sean Paul's band warmed up during her performance. She said: "Basically they're sound checking through my set and it's getting to me," before leaving the stage frustrated.

DJ Fearney tweeted: "#onelovepeacefestival BIGGEST joke I've ever seen in terms of organisation, f*****g over UK artists and the attitudes towards the press."

Kiran Johal of Chigwell, Essex, said: "The whole thing has just been a joke. It's poorly organised and a waste really. Instead of just having good artists on stage like Donaeo and Bashy they cut them from the show, reduce the main acts like Busta and then give boring no marks who nobody cares about time on stage. Why bother?"

A spokesperson at One Love Peace Festival said: "As with any live event, stage times and set lengths can change due to various factors arising on the day. Despite a few unforeseen delays the weekend's event was a great success and we are thrilled with the audience turnout and the incredible standard of on stage performances. Thanks to all the acts who performed and to all the fans who turned out in their thousands to support."

One Love Peace Festival branded 'a joke'

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