With the rise of little hand-held devices known as smartphones, you no longer need to tune on a local radio station twenty-four-seven, waiting to know what’s happening in days to come.

This new experience that came with the integration of social media in our day-to-day lives has totally revamped our access to information, making it spread faster and in many forms like never before. So, how is technology contributing to the show business?

Prelude

Rwandans have always organised big concerts. We have hosted various big names in the music industry worldwide: Lucky Dube, Sean Paul, Shaggy, Oliver Ngoma, Stromae and Brick and Lace, to name a few. All those were at the peak of their careers, which brought enormous crowds to venues to enjoy the good music. However, people hardly have evidence that those happened mostly because smartphones had not been massively adopted yet. There was no Instagram, no Twitter, no Facebook; which also means no photo memories.

Now

Growing up teenagers would say that the slightly older generation had no fun, and the later would laugh out loud because they know very well they did. The former are certainly living in a new age, where they get to show off in those places by taking selfies with famous artists and sharing the moments with friends and followers.

Event organisers were not left behind in this era. They are now exploiting this new revolution the most: It is easy for someone to convince you that Meddy is back to Kigali by sending you a little video of him inviting you. It feels more personal. It is also easy to bargain a ticket deal by telling you to buy online for almost half the price and free delivery, as compared to buying them at the entrance where there is a risk of a sellout.

Shows are piling up, the competition is growing strong, and this is a good thing since we can only expect professionalism and better services with such competition.

It is important, indeed, to note that we have not reached that level of professionalism yet, and event organisers still have a lot to work on. The after-shows are always pathetic. When you organise a show and put it in a remote area, please make sure you organise a way for people to leave the place as peaceful as they came. (Police is doing a great job so far, but the event organisers still need to do more in terms of communication and have after-event plans.)

We could also use some after-event video production that sums up the shows (the presidential campaign rallies by leading party RPF showed it was possible) and make sure whoever wasn’t able to attend make it their plan to attend the next time. More online traffic (content) and more content producers are needed to make the buzz which will result in more involvement of the rest of the public.

After all, these entertainment and cultural events are essential as we strive to grow as a society.

Have something to add to this story? Write to editor@kigalian.com.

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