National
R65m spent on cancelled Tshwane music festival: report─── 12:34 Sun, 21 Sep 2014
Pretoria - R65 million from the City of Tshwane has been squandered on the cancelled TribeOne music festival, the City Press newspaper reported.
A non-refundable appearance fee of R10 million for US singer Nicki Minaj is part of the bill clocked up for the event that was cancelled on Thursday.
Previously, the municipality revealed it had spent R40 million on infrastructure upgrades at the venue -- an empty plot -- in Cullinan.
A battle between the festival organisers and the city is now set to take place in the high court in Pretoria on Monday.
The city wants to force the organisers to go ahead with the festival insisting it met all obligations.
However, the organisers have suggested the city did not comply with its requirements for infrastructure upgrades.
The three-day festival was to take place next weekend.
TribeOne spokesman Derrick Kaufmann confirmed to the newspaper that organisers had been paid R25 million by the city in order to secure deposits for performers.
City Press reported that a number of artists on the bill had, however, not been paid.
The municipality declined to comment saying the matter was sub judice.
However, in a statement issued earlier this week, the city said that it may have grounds for a potential damages claim if the festival was not staged.
Sapa
