We’re Flexus Labs and We’re Here To Ruin Another Industry.

I expect a lot of offended and triggered dimwits and entry-level crooks to come charging at me for this article with their pitchforks raised, filing police complaints (mage maama DIG, mama entry pahak danawa) just as they did, when my dear friend Dinuka Prasad Lankaloka published a similar blog article about Dumidu Navishan Thabrew and Flexus Labs trying and failing enormously to bring Hardwell to Sri Lanka. So, brace yourselves, because we’re about you take you through a journey.

Claiming to be the fastest growing event management company in Sri Lanka, even though they haven’t managed any real events ‘except for birthday parties’ to quote the CEO of Flexus Labs, Sahan Senevirathne, (who later denied he made such a statement) and a few failed events that they hyped up on social media to make people think those were successful, Synchronight being one of them, Flexus Labs is trying to gain traction in the event production and event photography industry by doing events for dirt cheap, without even paying the artists properly, and ruining event photography industry by covering events, especially events at girls’ schools, cue gasp, for free.

“Free nam ithin Flexus thamai” 

Flexus Labs and Dumidu Navishan Thabrew, under the brand ‘Event Craft’, tried to bring down Hardwell to Sri Lanka without even having the fundamental knowledge on how to handle an event of such magnitude. The fact that their main investor pulled his funding because how unorganised they were, speaks volumes about how incompetent they are on managing events. Even after they failed to organise the event properly, they gave various excuses to the sponsors and the audience of the event without disclosing the real reason why the event was cancelled. The ‘Event Craft’ page was deleted, the event was deleted and until Dinuka Lankaloka revealed how it really went down, on his blog, the general public did not know the real reason behind the cancellation and the catastrophic failure of the event.

Let’s keep Hardwell aside.

The latest addition to the events that Flexus Labs organised was a mashup concert which they boasted and hyped up on Social Media as usual. It was called Synchronight, which featured a number of popular artists including Umaria Sinhawansa, Sanuka Wickramasinghe, Bathiya and Santhush, Lahiru Perera and Chitral Somapala. According to an Instagram post by Umaria Sinhawansa, none of the artists who performed at that concert have been paid yet, even though it has been almost two months since the event.

This is not the first time that Dumidu Navishan Thabrew, the event producer of Flexus labs, has conveniently forgotten to make due payments to the respective parties after an event. Another instance of this malpractice, which apparently is now habitual to him, is Dushyanth Weeraman – Celebrating 10 Years – Live in Concert, which was held in 2015, in which the payments worth Rs.1.2 million have not been made to the artists who performed at the event yet, including Dushyanth Weeraman.

It’s no wonder that as a young startup, they’re trying to break into the market using different strategies. But the problem with their strategies is that those are revolting and will eventually cripple a few industries in Sri Lanka, namely, photography, event management and even the music industry.

I’m not going to question the motives and the strategies of Flexus Labs. If the objective they’re trying to achieve is to take the most number of pictures of girls and go home and pleasure themselves, let it be. If their motive is to get laid and be ‘porawal’ using event management, let them be. But, overstepping and ruining an entire industry for their own agendas is downright unacceptable.

I do not have any issues with any event management company in general. I work closely with a few leading event management companies and the owners/CEOs of event management companies as well. But, the malpractices done by ventures such as Flexus Labs, will guarantee the collapse of the entire event industry and the music industry of Sri Lanka.