Greg Walsh made his grievances heard in a 10-minute long Facebook rant, where he categorically pinned the blame on the media for the cancellation of two of his biggest parties of the year..
Greg Walsh wanted Ballito, Plett Rage to go ahead
In his rant, Walsh, who is a majority shareholder of Rage Festival, an events company that owns the annual Ballito and Plett Rage parties, blamed the media for causing hysteria around 32 partygoers, including four staff members, who tested positive for COVID-19 on the first day of the Ballito Rage.
At the time, festival organisers had agreed with the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) department of health that cancelling the event was the right thing to do “based on facts, collaboration and the resources and tools we have available.”
However, Walsh, a key decision-maker at Rage Festival, disagreed.
“The media pressure that mounted on us, it was something extraordinary. Extraordinary to listen to media lie, and lie, and spread panic, and spread hysteria, and call on politicians for us to cancel, and call on parents for us to cancel, and just continue to say things that weren’t true,” he exclaimed.
Walsh stressed that after numerous presentations with the national department of health, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), and other health stakeholders, organisers were granted leeway to proceed with the Ballito and Plett Rage festivals.
He added that all health and safety protocols were observed on their end. They had rapid antigen facilities on site to facilitate daily testing of partygoers and staff, including dedicated emergency teams who were tasked with ensuring the safety of ragers.
For Walsh, the media’s coverage of the mass positive COVID-19 cases at Ballito was not to inform, but to increase impressions and advertising rates.
“No longer is the core purpose of the media to tell you and me the truth. The core purpose of media is to spread hysteria, and I would love to see the data of media houses, especially the ones that attacked us, and see what kind of increase in impressions they’ve had and advertising quotations to clients over the last two years with the outrage and hysteria that has been COVID-19,” he said.
Walsh, whose festivals attract thousands of matric pupils from across the country, urged the events industry to stand up against the media and fight back.
Here is the full version of his rant: