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I work for the people, not for individuals - Diana

04 Oct 2022 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}      

By Chaturanga Samarawickrama  

I did not ask Colombo Mayoress Rosy Senanayaka why she didn’t give permission to hold the HellFire Music Festival, as it was not essential to me. I work for the country’s people, not for individuals, Tourism State Minister Diana Gamage said.  

A media briefing was held yesterday by the Tourism State Minister and the director of the Hellfire company, Throz, to inform the public what was happening before the start of the HellFire Music Festival.  


During the media briefing, Gamage said that Colombo Mayoress Rosy Senanayaka had ordered the cancellation of the Electronic Dance Music (EDM) festival, which was performed at the recently opened Lotus Tower.  
“ Throz had organised the music festival by paying millions of rupees as an entertainment fee. About six international artistes were scheduled to perform at the music festival,” she said.  


She told the media that the Mayoress had cancelled the event because of the name “Hellfire”. The company that organised the event was not granted permission to hold the music festival under the said name, Hellfire.  
Gamage claimed that Throz had also been threatened by the Mayoress.  


“If the music festival is cancelled, international artistes may be inconvenienced and would have been under stress.”When I talked to those artists, they claimed that they came to the country after visiting five other countries, and they were on schedule to perform in another four countries after the festival here,” she said.  
If this concert was cancelled anyhow, this would be a huge setback for the country as well as to the tourism sector.  


Those artistes might have bad impression on our country and would have expressed their dismay through their social media profiles such as Facebook and other platforms. They were ready to talk about the issue with their respective ambassadors in Sri Lanka.  


Gamage said that permission was granted by the tourism ministry to perform the musical extravaganza.  
While addressing the media, the director of the Hellfire company, Throz, said that a team from the event organising committee had visited the Mayoress’ office three times to get permission, but the person was turned back without citing any reason. Throz said he had received a call from the Colombo Mayoress too.  


The video recording of a telephone conversation between the Colombo Mayoress Rosy Senanayake and Throz was exposed to the media yesterday. In that, Mayoress Senanayake said that people could be heard expressing strong opposition to the name chosen for the festival upon religious grounds. She was heard urging that the name “Hellfire” be changed.  


“I will not allow you to venerate Satan or Satanic music in my city,” Senanayake was heard saying. I will get the Buddhist clergy and everyone else against this concert. A lot of people were writing to me and asking me to stop this concert. “I have the power to endorse your tickets or not,” she said.  


We have invested millions in the event and in the artistes. With all of the threats, they were concerned about holding the event and the artistes’ safety until they left the country. Later, we contacted the state minister. She told us to continue with the music festival and that she would take care of the safety of the artistes. She promised to provide maximum protection for it while deploying as many police and army personnel as possible.  
Throz claimed that he would take legal action against the people who were involved in the incident.