Organizers Discuss Halting Shamoon Ismail’s Concert

Shamoon Ismail had expressed excitement at being back on stage in the City of Lights. He had a performance scheduled at the Avari Towers on Saturday. 

The singer had been welcomed with open arms by a loud and enthusiastic crowd, grooving to his well-known tracks. However, the ongoing concert was brought to an end quite abruptly by police officials. They had entered the premises and alleged that the crowd was violating the standard operating procedures (SOPs) for social-distancing at the venue. 

Sohaib Lari, who belongs to Big Foot Music, had taken up to playing bass for Ismail on that night. He talked to the public and shared that they had already performed six of their scheduled songs that day when they were told to stop the show. 

He recalled that various officials from the office of the commissioner had shown up at the venue. They had inspected the situation and reported that the audience was flouting the coronavirus guidelines as set by the government for public gatherings. Thus, the band was told by the management to halt their performance midway. 

Lari talked about the show before the officials had come in to shut it down. He said that they had gotten on stage around 8:15, once the DJ had ended his gig. 45 minutes later, sometime around 9pm, the band and Ismail were told to shut down their show and exit the premises. 

The bass player talked about how numerous police officials were present at the premises and were telling everyone to leave. Lari regretfully explained that they had no choice but to stop performing and leave. 

Later at night, Ismail took to Instagram and talked about the incident that had just occurred. He shared an Instagram story and stated that he had not expected the performance or his night to end this way. However, the singer added that he loves his fans from Karachi for showing up to the event. 

Since Saturday, the rumor mill has been churning stories of the organizers being forced to pay a fine of Rs.100,000 for violating the SOPs on the premises. But, the organizers refuse to comment on whether the fine was levied or not. 

They later took to Instagram and released a statement regarding the event and the unfortunate incident that followed. Their Salt Arts account talked about how this was their 103rd show since the inception of the festival in the year of 2015. They boasted about featuring high-end artists such as SIDD and Shamoon Ismail. 

The organizers also added that the show had been held at the poolside of the Avari Towers. They went on to say that all the permits had been obtained in advance and their teams had stayed in contact with various relevant departments before and on the day of the event. 

The statement read that the show had started at 6:30 pm and was going to end at 9:45, as they were directed by government authorities in light of the coronavirus regulations.