Sing-a-long to Toto’s Africa at Monument has been cancelled

Last week we reported that there was going to be a mass sing-a-long to Toto's legendary song, Africa at Monument on the 27th October.

Sadly, it appears that we were right to be a bit sceptical about the Facebook event organised by Chris Atkins as it has now been cancelled after safety concerns were raised as over 4,800 had clicked attending and the event had over 4,300 shares on Facebook.

Chris posted on the event on Thursday afternoon to say that the event is going to have to be cancelled due to the "overwhelming response and publicity the event is getting". He was told by the council and the police that the event can’t happen on their property without being properly organised with things like risk assessments, insurance and other forms and fees being filled out.

Chris also states that "the only chance we really have is if some events team (as I don’t understand nor have the time for all the legal stuff) wishes to take charge of the planning and organisation of the whole thing on privately owned land, presumably at a later date.

“Obviously, it all seems like a load of work for something that had started as a joke, and I’m honestly humbled by the response and people asking to interview me and help me out, just a bit sad that there’s no real way this can happen in a small amount of time.” (Cry)

 A spokesperson for Newcastle City Council told The Chronicle that "Safety must come first and that we work closely with Northumbria Police and other partners to ensure that public events in the city are safe for people to attend. A multi-agency safety advisory group, that includes the council and the police, is set up to consider and plan for each event…Considerable planning is required to ensure that public safety is maintained.

“In respect of this event we could not guarantee the safety of those attending and on that basis advised the organiser to cancel the event. This is also to protect him in the event of public liability.

“We are sorry for the disappointment this may have caused but public safety has to be our first priority which the organiser now recognises.”

So it turns out there is something a hundred men or more could (n)ever do after all.