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The organisers behind the Royal Heritage Festival held annually in Thohoyandou, Limpopo, on Monday distanced themselves from a media fiasco that had social media buzzing.
City Press’ Phumlani S Langa was part of a large contingent of media invited by TGE and the public relations company Khanya Comms to take part in a four-day road trip that would showcase the beautiful province and culminate in the music festival.
However things quickly started falling apart and ended with the media not being able to access the festival because there were no tickets available.
The bungles included:
• A stop-off at the Tropic of Capricorn, which didn’t happen;
• An abrupt change in hotel;
• A house party at a location that was such a secret that nobody turned up;
• A champagne breakfast that didn’t happen;
• A small gala event featuring Tbo Touch that ended up being dinner by themselves at “a rather unimpressive establishment with no glitz, speeches or anything else worth talking about”;
• A ferry that was “leaking”; and
• The failure to organise tickets to the festival that all the journalists had trekked across the country to attend.
“We returned to Joburg .... dejected and upset,” Langa wrote.
“The festival was apparently a resounding success, but, thanks to the logistical brilliance of TGE and the PR company Khanya Comms, City Press is unable to tell you anything about it. What a waste.”
Following the article, which was published in Sunday’s City Press, the festival organisers distanced themselves from the trip organisers.
“We would like to confirm that we do not work nor collaborate with the two entities involved,” Kelebogile Mabunda, public relations manager of the Royal Heritage Festival, said on Monday.
“We can also confirm that there were no media tickets allocated to them. Each year we host a number of media from Johannesburg and we ensure that they have a pleasant time in Venda and at the Festival.
“This year, our PR agency KLM Publicity, invited 20 media guests from Johannesburg, of which some of them are your colleagues who can testify that there were no logistical or ticket issues from our team.”
According to the festival organisers they strove to improve the media’s experience each year, but unfortunately had little control over outside entities “taking advantage to host their own experiences”.
They invited Langa to attend the festival next year.
