Freeriders are holding back music events in Lahore

Artists and promoters call for stronger community support

The music scene in Pakistan is on the rise. Events and concerts are popping up more frequently across cities in the country. However, people in this space are concerned with the entitlement of crowds who refuse to pay for tickets or find loopholes in attending these events without actually contributing to the culture.This has been a longstanding issue for artists and event management teams, especially in Lahore

“The main issue is privilege”, said Abdul Rehman, CMO of EVNTM, a local event management company, while talking to The Express Tribune. He mentioned how people in Lahore would much rather wait till the last day before the event in hopes of securing a spot on the guestlist free of cost than actually paying for tickets. “This mindset is often pushed onto others as well,“ he said. “People here will be apprehensive to spend that much money on something that is unrelated to food,” said Hassam Anwar, a local singer, producer and filmmaker. According to him, guestlists and ‘mehman nawazi’ (guest accomodation) culture in Punjab contradicts the ethos of community support for local talent.

“Community support is the backbone of the entire scene,” said Abdul. He talked about how it is crucially important for audiences to support their local artists. “You can not build a prosperous network of artists without financial support from community members, not everyone has the room to incur the loss caused by freeriders.”

Abdul proposed potential solutions to these problems. “Promoters have to take a harder stance on saying no to people, even their friends and family.” He mentioned the need to develop a system where even guest listers should be required to pay a small amount in the spirit of supporting and uplifting local artists.

In the midst of these issues, the artist’s perspective is crucial. “Sponsors usually allocate funds mainly for the headline act, while the rest of the budget is to be divided within the other artists,” said Hassam. In the process, stage and artist curation is suppressed. “Sometimes agencies will randomly group a bunch of artists together, get some big speakers and call it an event,” he said. He described how this type of workflow can be directionless and prevents audience cross pollination, new lineups and fresh experiences, all of which are crucial for the growth of the scene.

The sentiments echoed by figures in the industry are simple. Audiences should buy tickets and support local artists in whichever way they can. More attention and effort should be allocated to curating interesting lineups, stage designs and underground artists. According to Abdul, “This is the only way our music industry will flourish.”