Oh! Colombo 

On a very frequent basis Colombo holds events. Be it a local artiste or an international, there is always a hue and cry after the event about how badly organized it was or a total rip off. Always a negative and never a kudos. 

Just a month or so back an international artiste who performed in Colombo was given such bad reviews and one only heard of the horrendous stories of those who had paid Rs. 35,000 for the event and felt they had been cheated in every possible way. The crowd that bought the cheaper tickets had crashed into the VIP area and all sorts of not so very nice stories about their behvaiour did the rounds, including ladies being sexually harassed. The show started many hours later than scheduled and even then the artiste apparently only lip-synched. Overall, almost all of those who attended the show seemed to have left it with a really bad taste in their mouths. 

Last Sunday was the Colombo Jazz and Blues Festival organized by Mainstage Events. The venue was the Galle Face Hotel, certainly the perfect spot for this particular event as they have the most scenic location. A tremendous atmosphere for the Festival was created at the Hotel taking every minute detail into account. The stage and set were perfect and a picnic-like atmosphere had been created with blankets and cushion thrown around for people to either sit or lie on and relax and enjoy the music. Reasonably priced picnic baskets of  food and beverage were also available for purchase. There also was a mini design market featuring local designers. Most importantly, the musicians who performed were fabulous and were appreciated and enjoyed by all. 

The founders of Main Stage Events are Gehan Fernando, Dinesh Wijesinghe and Shane Ismail, veterans in the fields of music, hospitality as well as entertainment. This was not the first event they organized. They have organized many great concerts before equally well. 

Next year Mainstage Events are planning on making Colombo Jazz and Blues Festival a bigger one featuring even more renowned jazz musicians, which would probably the only one of its kind in Asia. Kudos to Gehan, Dinesh and Shane for presenting this fabulous evening that commenced at noon and went on till midnight. Congratulations to Galle Face Hotel who gave excellent service to all the audience. 

This proves that organizing events of this nature should be left in the hands those who have great organizational skills as well as a passion for what they are presenting. The rest turns out like magic.