Social media is abuzz with comments from angry citizens who have called out restaurant chain La Parada and electronic music act Goodluck for hosting a concert in Cape Town this weekend that violates lockdown regulations.
As the Covid-19 pandemic enters its second wave here in South Africa, restaurants, events, organisations and musicians who are not playing their part when booking events have come under fire. As President Ramaphosa prepares to address the nation tonight where he is scheduled to implement stronger lockdown measures, restaurant chain La Parada has come under fire for hosting a concert which failed to adhere to the health and safety guidance
and, ultimately, has been called out as a superspreader event.
The concert comes just days after almost all young adults who celebrated this year’s Rage event in Durban tested positive for Covid-19 and played a significant part in pushing South Africa into the pandemic’s second wave.
Since videos of the event have circulated on social media, La Parada has deleted their Twitter account and have yet to make a statement on their lapse in judgement.
Musicians Goodluck, who entertained the crowd, have come forward and have unreservedly apologised for the incident while taking the time to give fans a little more context into what went wrong.
Yoh, G**d Luck sent it at La Parada Last night. Sent it back to level 5. pic.twitter.com/VD6sZj4XRE
— Uth 🇿🇦 (@UthmanSamaai) December 14, 2020
“Last night we performed at an event that was hosted and run by La Parada, a venue in Cape Town. Since then a video has been circulating of an unmasked crowd dancing to our music with Jules singing on a table – and we would like to unreservedly apologise for how it looked and the part that we had to play in that situation,” the band shared in a statement on their social media pages.
“We have been informed that customers were supposed to have stayed at the tables and not move around throughout the event,” the group adds. “These rules were largely adhered to until the last three minutes (the final song) of our show where during this song everyone got very excited and started to jump around between the tables as seen in the video. We should have stopped the music and instructed everyone to go back to their tables but we were right at the end of the show mid song, but the moment got a away from us. For this, we do sincerely apologise.”
The group, who had a string of shows planned for the festive season, has ultimately taken the decision to cancel their Get Lucky Summer concert series which has become a popular yearly attraction every December.
Read the full statement here:
We would like to offer our sincerest apology to all of our fans, friends and family. We had nothing but the best of intentions going into Sunday's performance & we are bitterly disappointed that things got out of control for even 1 minute. Its a massive reminder to stay vigilant. pic.twitter.com/BX94v0Mev0
— GoodLuck (@Goodlucklive) December 14, 2020
