Fight breaks out ahead of Sarkodie’s set at Beale Street Music Festival… venue evacuated just after his performance due to thunderstorms

Ghana’s currently most decorated musician, Sarkodie had a very eventful showing on Day 2 of the Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis, Tennessee.

His Saturday night set at the Zyn Stage of the festival was preceded by an incident that almost led to a stampede. While festivalgoers were waiting for the Sarkodie set to kick-off, after Memphis-born rapper NLE Choppa had completed his set, two ladies started exchanging blows in a section of the crowd, right Infront of the stage. Not sure of what was really happening, most of the other festivalgoers started to flee the area for safety.

The police were called in, and calm was soon restored after the culprits were removed from the crowd.

Sarkodie then made an impressive showing on stage after his manager, Angel introduced him to the huge crowd that was hugely unfamiliar with the Ghanaian rapper’s music, just after playing the Ghana national anthem. Angel stated “…truth is the majority of you all might not get half of the things he is about to rap or sing tonight. But I need you all to pay attention to this next artist, I need you all to pay attention to the energy, I need you to pay attention to the sound, this African sound…I present to you two-time BET Award-winner, one of the best ever from Africa, Sarkodie”.

Sarkodie then went on to open the show with ‘Married to The Game’. He followed back-to-back with songs from his last album ‘No Pressure’, including ‘Rollies N Cigar’, ‘Fugazy’, ‘Coachella’, and more.

Knowing fully that majority of the crowd didn’t know his songs, he tried to get them to sing along to some of his easy to sing songs by teaching them a few words but most of the crowd participation came simply from the strong hip-hop beats in Sarkodie’s sound, which was accentuated on the night by the drums in his live set.

Sarkodie then brought in more vibes for the crowd with a session that had his popular and more danceable hit songs such as ‘Adonai’, ‘Pong D Thing’, and many others.

His set lasted for almost one hour. However, just after that, organizers of the festival announced an evacuation of the venue due to an unexpected thunderstorm that was forecast to happen in a few minutes. For safety, organizers asked everyone to exit the venue immediately and return when the weather had cleared for the Megan Thee Stallion, Smashing Pumpkins, and Robert Randolph Band’s sets.

Other performers on Saturday included Soul Asylum, Project Pat, Whyte $osa, and more. Ghana’s Stonebwoy will also perform on Sunday along with Shaggy, Lil Wayne, Third World, Third Eye Blind, Weezer, and more!