Olamide was notably absent at Phynofest 2017. This was really disappointing for the fans after he had been confirmed to attend. Not to mention his relationship with Phyno.
His absense maybe unrelated to OLIC 2017.
OLAMIDE LIVE IN CONCERT(OLIC) is an annual show by the rapper at the end of every year. The venue for OLIC has always been The Eko Hotel Convention Center.
However this year, the rapper obviously inspired by the success of PHYNOFEST 2017 is taking the event from the ajebutters to the streets.
Surulere, where Teslim Balogun Stadium is loactated is the center of Lagos. With only one exit gate one can only envisage the rush and commotion. Lagos is a crazy place to live on a regular day, add an Olamide show and you’ve sucessfully spun the perfect recipe for endless traffic and a buffet for the area boys in Shitta.
However we’ve been able to put some suggestions together for the OLIC team to manage the security and traffic.
1. Charge A Gate Fee/Tickets: Olamide’s team must surely knows he makes music for the street, recently he delved into the ‘pon pon pon’ Ghanian sound and it didnt work well for him. Hence he dropped ‘Wo’ which has clearly been one of the biggest songs of the year. This is one of the main reasons why the OLIC team must make crowd control a priority. One way to do this is to charge fans coming in.
If this is not done, all the touts from Shitta, Mushin and Yaba will find their way into the stadium. We all know what they are capable of doing.
2. Control the Numbers: The Teslim Balogun is a 24,555 capacity stadium. This doesnt include the football field itself which will hold a substantial amount of fans. At the end of the day, we might be talking about 30,000 – 35,000 in numbers. However the OLIC team must be careful to ensure just the right number of people to into the stadium to avoid an incident of stampede.
3. Control the Inner Roads: As earlier mentioned Teslim Balogun Stadium is located in the middle of the city of Lagos. The exact spot is in close proximity to Mushin, Ojuelegba and Surulere. The inner roads leading to and fro these areas must be heavily secured and put under heavy traffic control. Safe to say Surulere will not be the best place for commuters to be on that day.
4. Create Multiple Exits : Managing tens of thousands in a frenzied crowd is not as easy as it seems. In the unlikely event that something very dangerous happens, law enforcement will lose all the control they had very quickly.
This is why multiple exit points are needed to allow people leave as freely and quickly as possible. These exit points will be useful at the end of the show to avoid the risk of stampedes or a single exit clogged by fans who are too eager to get home. However the Stadium has one visible exit road. We advise that others be created albeit temporary.
5. Provide World Class Security: Security personnel must be enough to manage 40,000 people are more. It is a million times easier to manage a show in Enugu than in Lagos. Phynofest2017 had everything from police, civil defense corps, security dogs to soldiers. The OLIC team has to do ten times that number excluding traffic controllers.
