Magical Night 2.0 Atif Aslam: A musical spectacle marred by mismanagement

Since the student-led July-August Uprising, large-scale open-air concerts in Dhaka have been put on hold until Friday night’s much-anticipated concert “Magical Night 2.0” at the Army Stadium featuring Pakistani singer Atif Aslam.

While the musical experience was enthralling for fans and admirers of the beloved singer, who was accompanied from his motherland by fellow young and popular Abdul Hannan, Bangladesh’s own heartthrob Tahsan, the Kaaktaal band, and Bangladeshi EDM and DJ duo Aperuss, the overall experience of audiences and other stakeholders did not match.

The main act of the concert began with the young Bangladeshi band Kaaktaal’s performance, who amped up the gradually increasing crowd with their songs like “Rokto Gorom Matha Thanda” and more. Abdul Hannan took the stage at around 7 pm, greeting the crowd by saying, “I am so overwhelmed with your response. This crowd is my biggest crowd so far.”

Besides his regular songs such as “Iraaday,” he performed Harry Style’s “As it was” and his recent collaboration with popular Pakistani band Kaavish at this year’s Coke Studio Pakistan, titled “O Yaara.”

Tahsan, started at 7:42 pm with the song “Ekhono,” followed by his fan-favourite numbers such as “Prem Tumi,” “Kotodur,” “Chhuye Diley Mon,” “Prematal,” and concluded his act with “Alo.”

After his enthralling performances, the recent documentary on the July Movement was then showcased at the event. The documentary, with Miles’ popular song “Polashir Prantor” penned by Latiful Islam Shibli as its background score, brought the festivity toned down a bit for its heavy and heartfelt narratives - which brought out the chief guest of the night, the Adviser of Youth and Sports Asif Mahmud Sajib Bhuiyan, also one of the major faces behind the revolution.

“If the July movement martyrs were still alive, they would have attended the performance. Although they are not present tonight, their principles will live on in our hearts forever, and I request that you remember that the sacrifices made by the July martyrs cannot be forgotten or wasted. Motherland or martyrdom—this is our motto,” the adviser remarked.

With an energetic countdown, Atif Aslam’s performance began at 8:45 pm but immediately stopped due to a sudden technical glitch. The energetic exuberance of the globally popular artist, however, was not lightened by this - and the moment he returned and took the stage, he transmitted the magic to the overwhelming crowd.

Greeting the awaiting admirers and saying “Bangladesh always feels like my second home,” Atif jumped on putting on a truly magical night for his fans by performing his massively popular Bollywood, Hindi, and Urdu tracks one after another for almost three hours, including “Dil Diyan Gallan,” “Tera Hone Laga Hoon,” “Pehli Nazar Mein,” “Tere Liye,” “Doorie,” “Jeena Jeena,” “Woh Lamhe,” “Taajdar-E-Haram,” “Kuch Is Tarah,” and more. He also performed a medley of some popular Bollywood songs including “Aaoge Jab Tum Mere Sajna,” “Kun Faya Kun,” “Pehla Nasha,” “Ek Pyaar ka Nagma,” and “Mere Piya Ghar Aya,” tributing other respected artists.

That being said, the concert organised by Triple Time Communication at the Army Stadium on Friday showed mismanagement in every aspect, according to the concertgoers. The list of complaints includes not being able to enter the venue even after buying the high-priced tickets, harassment at the venue gate, lack of washroom facilities, and audience beyond capacity.

The gate for the concert was opened at 1 pm; however, as the concertgoers were coming from different parts of the city - severe traffic jams occurred on the road from Uttara to Mohakhali, which eventually came to a standstill, resulting in the passengers going to the airport and returning abroad to suffer, about which netizens reacted angrily on Facebook. Also, the lack of parking facilities contributed heavily to the traffic on the road to which the stadium is adjacent.

A group of individuals broke through the main gate of the stadium and entered the general segment of the venue after Kaaktaal’s performance, and Army officials promptly intervened to bring the situation under control. Following a brief halt, the event resumed at 6:10 pm with a performance by Apeiruss, and the gate was closed at 7:30 pm.

Sadly, many legit ticketholders could not even enter and enjoy the concert despite paying a hefty price for the tickets, which were sold out weeks in advance, with categories priced at Tk 10,000 for the “Magical Zone,” Tk 4,500 for the “Front Zone,” and Tk 2,500 for the “General” section. Among them was popular actress Shabnam Faria, who shared her experience on her verified Facebook profile, writing, “I don’t know whether to praise the Army for being strict about the security or feel sad about not being able to enter the concert!!!”

Journalists who were assigned to cover the concert also suffered greatly from this concert, as any sort of audio-visual equipment, including cameras, gimbals, microphones, or even power banks, was not allowed inside the concert venue, as per the restrictions from the Army Stadium. A prescheduled press conference before the day of the event was also cancelled at the last moment.

Besides all these incidents, the second edition of “Magical Night” delivered a good musical experience to the concertgoers at one of the country’s biggest open-air venues, but the overall experience could have been better, some of the audiences from the live crowd told UNB during the concert.