The 28-year-old was one of the singers in the line up at the international festival, where his performance was cut short when organizers unexpectedly shut down the stage lights and sound.

Afgan said he was scheduled to sing at 8 p.m. but his session did not begin until two hours later. As an international singer was performing on a different stage at the same time, Afgan said the commitee then asked him not to sing.

"But because I saw there was already a large crowd of audience waiting in front of the stage, even some who had come far from outside of Yogya, [my] management and I fought to come on stage," Afgan, via his Instagram account @afgansyah.reza, wrote on the caption of his post uploaded on Sunday. 

 

Semalem ngalamin pengalaman manggung yang gak mengenakan, pertama kali ngalamin kaya gini. Jadi dari awal memang acaranya ngaret banget, gw seharusnya perform jam 8 malam. Tapi gw baru naik panggung sekitar jam 10 malam. Padahal gw sudah stand by satu jam lebih awal untuk antisipasi. Dan karena ada international artist yang harus main di waktu yang sama, gw malah dibilang gak usah main sama panitia, cuman karena gw lihat banyak sekali penonton yang sudah nunggu di depan panggung, bahkan ada yang sudah dateng jauh2 dari luar Jogja, akhirnya gw dan management fight untuk naik. Walaupun sound awalnya gak dinyalain oleh mereka, gw tetep nyanyi, at least fans gak sia-sia udah nunggu. Eh di lagu ke 4, lampu panggung semua di matiin, alias gw diusir. Akhirnya semua penonton nyalain flashlight dr handphone masing2, tanda mereka tetep ingin gw nyanyi. Moment ini yang buat gw dan anak2 band terharu, mengobati kekecewaan kita semua. Terimakasih buat semua yang hadir semalam, gak tau lagi deh kalo gak ada support kalian. It means the world to us! Sayang sekali padahal acaranya bisa digarap dengan bagus, semoga bisa jadi pelajaran buat penyelenggara Prambanan Jazz. Dan semoga kedepannya local artist bisa dapat apresiasi yang sama dengan International artist. Cause we're all just trying to give our best on stage.. 📷 @nareend

A post shared by Afgan (@afgansyah.reza) on Aug 20, 2017 at 12:39am PDT

While on stage, Afgan said festival organizers had turned down the speakers' volume. The singer nevertheless chose to continue to sing. After his fourth song, Afgan said the stage lights were then turned off. 

"Which meant I was kicked off [stage]. The audience decided turn on the flashlight on their phones, which showed they still wanted me to continue to sing," Afgan wrote. 

Read also: Prambanan temple to host three-day jazz festival

The singer expressed his disappointment at the organizers and hoped that local singers would be given the same appreciation as international artists. "Cause we're all just trying to give our best on stage," Afgan wrote. 

As reported by tempo.co, a spokesman from the festival's committee responded with an apology hours after the singer posted his complaint. 

Rajawali Indonesia Communication CEO Anas said the incident was caused by a misunderstanding between the organizers and Afgan's management. The festival, he explained, consisted of two stages, namely the festival show and the special show. 

Sarah Brightman, who was performing with an orchestra on another stage, had requested that no one else performs at the same time, Anas said. Organizers had in turn asked Afgan to perform after Brightman. 

"We guaranteed that fans could still wait because there was still [an ongoing culinary program] pasar kangen. Promoters would announce that Afgan would perform after Sarah. But Afgan's management still refused," Anas said. 

Finally they negotiated for Afgan to perform only six songs. "Then we asked again to be four songs," said Anas. "Finally Afgan got on stage with the sound volume that we had turned down. However, the sound from Afgan's stage was still leaking onto Sarah's stage."

Anas admitted that it was a difficult decision that had to be taken. 

"They are disappointed we understand, because there was an indecisiveness from us when the artist was preparing on stage. Nevertheless, Afgan is an important singer in Indonesia's music industry. Of course, we want to work with Afgan again," said Anas. (liz/kes)

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