What Really Happened at FOLA’s Mainland Block Party Show in Lagos

Two days ago, a series of fights broke out at a Mainland Block Party in Lagos – an organized event headlined by one of Nigeria’s fastest-rising Afrobeats stars, FOLA. The concert, held on December 15 at the Balmoral Event Centre in Victoria Island, Lagos, was abruptly halted due to safety concerns arising from overcrowding. Organizers reportedly stopped the show when attendance exceeded the venue’s approved capacity, sparking chaos among attendees. 

The platform, which prides itself on bridging different strata of society — a space where it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg to rub shoulders with your faves — received a wave of backlash on social media after the incident. “Tell me why we were denied entry even with tickets; the hall capacity was tiny compared to the number of tickets sold,” read one caption on TikTok. The accompanying video shows people fighting at the venue’s gates, with others forcing their way inside.

Founder Tobi Mohammed says he was at the entrance attempting to calm the situation. He tells OkayAfrica that some attendees had bought tickets from unvetted vendors, despite the show having been advertised as sold out weeks in advance. According to Mohammed, this issue becomes particularly pronounced for an event of their scale. The Mainland Block Party has grown into one of West Africa’s most iconic live music platforms since its inception in 2018, drawing tens of thousands to sold-out shows across Nigeria and beyond.

The second issue, he says, involved what he calls “bumrushers” – superfans who wanted nothing more than to see their favorite artist. “They were not listening. We were begging them to please leave and go home, and they were so insistent and so rude about it. They were not understanding that tickets were sold out,” he says.

In the aftermath of the event, FOLA himself addressed fans publicly, acknowledging the disappointment and explaining the decision to halt the show. “My people, I’m really sorry about how last night went,” he wrote in a post on social media, adding, “People were hurt, and that should never happen. I had to stop the show because safety comes before anything else.” 

FOLA’s record label, Dangbana Republik, also issued a statement recognizing the safety lapses that occurred, confirming that the venue’s capacity was exceeded and affirming that the performance was stopped once it became clear that fans were at risk. The label underscored its commitment to addressing concerns raised by fans: “Your safety remains non-negotiable to us.”

OkayAfrica has previously written about how the concert experience often fails to match the quality of the music itself, but this case illustrates another dimension: there is only so much an organizer can do when an audience refuses to listen. This raises a broader question: upon whom does the responsibility of audience education ultimately fall? Surely not just on the organizers.

Mohammed says that Mainland Block Party will be more selective about venues going forward. “Venues with a certain kind of layout are not ones we’re going to use anymore. We’re also reinforcing our ‘Wall of Jericho’ strategy and creating new systems to better validate real versus fake tickets,” he says.