Musician Kelly Kay pulls out of Hangout festival just an hour before his performance

By Staff Reporter


Singer Kell Kay on Saturday shocked people when he pulled out of the local headline slot at Hangout festival taking place at Kabumba Hotel in Salima after the organisers failed to owner some of the contractual agreements

The singer was expected to go on stage at around 19:45 in the evening but just an hour to his performance the singer wrote on Facebook that he was not going to perform.

“I would like to apologize to all my fans who are at Hangout Festival in Salima. I will NOT be performing as advertised. I was really looking forward to entertaining you tonight, but due to circumstances beyond my control, I will not be able to.”

“The organisers were supposed to sort out a few things before I start off for Salima, and they didn’t. To make it worse, they couldn’t even pick up my calls. I had no choice but to stay at home,” reads part of his statement.

The _Mukanabwera_ and _Basi_ hit maker has since advised the organizers of the three-day festival to start treating local artists with the respect they deserve.

Kell Kay

The Hangout festival started in October 2019 and this is the third time it is taking place in the lakeshore district.

However, in all these three editions, the festival has been not without controversy.

During the first edition, the turn out was very low due to a lapse in the organisation of the event.

Last year despite the Covid-19 fears, there was an improvement in terms of patronage though some music enthusiastics were left disappointed as some of the acts on the line-up failed to show up coupled with an unimpressive performance by South African based musician Mr Brown.

This year there was a big improvement in the turn out and performances as all the international artists who were invited gave out a good performance.

_Ghanama_ hit maker Makhadzi, the Mozambican born Mr Brown of _Rain on me_ fame, Professor, and Amapiano stars DJ Obza and Mapara A Jazz were some of the artists that performed on the day

Some local artists that were lined up to perform were Ma Blacks, Anthony Makondetsa, Lulu, Janta, Piksy, Kell Kay and Skeffa Chimoto.