| Charles Campbell Sunday, January 22, 2006 |
Currently, there is speculative interest being generated in regards to a debate as to whether the market can viably sustain three large summer festivals. Meanwhile, Barbados has multiple festivals annually and I have even seen plans by St Lucia - a smaller island with a much smaller population - to commence promoting large festival-type events monthly.
The interests concerned have already received UNESCO endorsements and substantial capital support from international, public and private sponsors.
A good guide to determining the depth of the live event market is to assess the gate returns from events held within the four-week period of December 15, 2005 to January 15, 2006. During this period, as usual, there was a plethora of public parties and smaller stage shows, as well as Sting (Dec 26), East Fest (December 30) and Rebel Salute (January 14).
This must be the first year in many aeons that I have not heard any promoter complaining about having lost monies invested in any one of the events.
Better still is the feedback from patrons about these live shows, that by comparison this year, they experienced a higher level of organisation, including shorter band changes and expedient crowd and traffic control than they have become accustomed to in previous years. This is indeed good news, and augurs well for future growth of these events.
While it is the time to say that attendance numbers at Rebel Salute were less than last year, for two reasons, I was not surprised. Firstly, Jimmy Cliff's career was already on a resurgence on the local scene when he was announced as the headliner and therefore became a fillip to ambivalent or wavering patrons.
Last year too, however, with preparations to expand access roads and parking facilities commencing too late, compounded by rainfall and too few traffic cops - especially senior officers - and security personnel assigned to this task, access and egress for the average patron was a nightmare.
Due to previous promises that were unfulfilled, there was some amount of cynicism when it was announced this year that there would be increased car park capacity and that high command would oversee the traffic arrangements and I know of more than a few people who stayed away primarily for this reason.
Happily, they were proven wrong and the traffic flow before and after went relatively smoothly. Congratulations are in order to both the police traffic department and Flames Productions. The production staff are also due commendations on the set changes at Rebel Salute. They were tight and efficient.
I must single out Noddy Virtue for special mention for his commanding stage presence and use of stagecraft. Most of the other younger artistes on the show performed mostly in a crouching stance, giving the audience a sideways view of them rather than full frontal view. Noddy's entrance was full of drama, then he gave us full, upright stance before doing his little skank from time to time.
Don't get me wrong, I like an active performer who makes full use of his stage and on that show, Bunny Rugs and Luciano surely displayed how to do it. and yes, Rodney, your namesake certainly squandered a lot of his mystique on that night.
It is an incumbent on artistes' managers to impart the importance and techniques of stage craft to their protégés at an early phase of their career if they are aiming for lasting international impact as performers. Take Ninjaman for example, he has perfected this art and in doing so has sustained a long career even when he does not have current songs on the hit parade.
Year after year at Reggae Sunsplash and Sting, he delivers thrilling performances that overshadow other contenders in his genre. What I am happy to see though, is more of our artistes 'dressing the part', so to speak. The industry went through a low point when acts were coming on stage 'in any ol' clothes'- thank God that this now seems to be totally relegated to the past.
Brazilian Reggae band, Lions of Israel did themselves and Reggae proud at Rebel Salute that night. I certainly hope that Jamaicans and Latin Americans, who did not get the opportunity to see their performance, will again get the chance to see them in June at the Caribbean and Latin American cultural festival now being planned. It is encouraging to see how enthusiastic the Spanish, Peruvian, Cuban, Colombian and Mexican embassies have been toward this project.
This brings me back to my pet subject of 'Brand Jamaica'.
We met with the Colombian ambassador this week and in looking at him and hearing him speak, one began to wonder whether he was originally from St Elizabeth or Westmoreland. Of course, as it turns out, his ancestors - like that of many Colombians - are Jamaicans and they revere this historical link while retaining many traditional cultural norms and forms like mento music which has in turn influenced newer forms of music in Colombia and other Hispanic countries in the region.
Mento is so ingrained in our subconscious that you can hear distinct strains of it whenever there is an election campaign on. It is no different this time around. Have you heard Portia Simpson's campaign songs, for instance?
While I believe it is partly because of alienation to popular music and culture, I also believe that the genre harkens back or portends to a gentler Jamaica.
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