Asim Azhar was to serenade the crowd at Kinnaird College for Women in Lahore on Friday night, but the performance was canceled midway because of “management and crowd control issues”.
Those present at the venue reported fainting cases and injuries resulting from a stampede. As a result, the Ghalat Fehmi crooner took to Instagram to post a note of apology and offered to help those affected by the mismanagement.
Concertgoers took to social media to express their disappointment and share pictures and videos of the chaos at the event. They voiced their complaints about how the event was handled.
A user shared their disappointment in the “horrible” management, while another narrated the way women were harassed by a group of men who snuck into the all-girls event.
“Getting harassed… by men at a professedly ‘all girls concert’ (at Kinnaird) and upon complaining to management, you receive an appalling response “If there are 1000 girls at a venue, the actions of 20 boys cannot be considered harassment.”
“Asim Azhar couldn’t perform today because the management couldn’t control the crowd and way more tickets were sold as compared to the space available,” said another user.
“Police had to be called to handle the situation,” said a user who was perhaps in attendance.
Asim Azhar offers apology
Azhar took to his Instagram stories to explain the situation and apologize to his fans for the traumatic experience on the behalf of the management and his team. He shared that he was ready with his team backstage but the management asked them to stop since they couldn’t control the crowd anymore.
The Kabhi Mai Kabhi Tum crooner emphasized how disappointed he was and that he wasn’t aware of the ticket situation until they got there.
“There were a lot of people in the crowd getting injured and the venue’s capacity could not hold the number of people that were present. Nothing makes me more sad than not being able to see and perform for you guys, but sadly things are out of our control,” shared the Jo Tu Na Mila hitmaker.
He further added that his team tried to pressure the organizers into controlling the damage and refunding tickets of those who came to see him perform live but could not due to their issues.
Azhar went on to share his contact details to offer help to those affected by the poor management at the venue. “I’d love to help in any way that I can. All love and prayers for you guys,” read the caption.
In the wake of Atif Aslam, Talha Anjum, and Aima Baig having to pause their performances during earlier events to call out miscreants, Azhar had to do the same during his New Year’s Eve show after catching men “drinking openly” in the crowd.
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