St. Ann 'Massover'

The Easter weekend has emerged as the high point of the cultural life for the citizens of St Ann. In fact, the live events that took place last weekend have a much broader national appeal and patronage, as well as generating significant economic spin-offs, benefiting not only the host parish, but many other parishes including the mainly Kingston-based promoters and sponsors.

To commence the weekend, the annual Melrose Kite Festival was held on Good Friday. On Saturday, Chukka Cove hosted the ultra all-inclusive day session called Daydreams. Also on Saturday, the annual drink-inclusive Bacchanal Beach J'ouvert was again held at James Bond Beach. Then came the big day, Sunday, when the all-inclusive Appleton Rapids was staged at White River Park; Alex Chin and Daniel Abbott had their annual all-inclusive Luau at Reggae Beach and of course Lee Enterprises had the Jamaica Carnival Countdown at Richmond Estate Recreation Park. The weekend ended on Easter Monday with bumper crowds attending the St Ann Kite Festival at Seville Heritage Park and racing at the Dover Raceway. These last two caused an intense traffic jam which stretched all the way from St Ann's Bay to Landovery from 4:00 pm until nearly midnight.

Revellers at Richmond Estate last Sunday for Jamaica Carnival Countdown

If one were to compare the Easter weekend for the hotel and accommodations sector of St Ann with the ancient "massover".oops, I mean Passover weekend in Bethlehem, the famous phrase "there was no room in the inn" would most certainly apply. That weekend, all the hotels - big and small - were booked out solid, some of them months in advance, forcing many to seek accommodation as far away as Starfish and other hotel properties in Trelawny. A few folks even chose to camp out rather than miss the action. As I watched the mass-ive influx with Ocho Rios and its environs swelling to the seams, I recalled that famous 1980 slogan and wondered if the last person leaving Kingston would please turn out the lights.

This has also brought a tremendous fillip to local restaurants and supermarkets, clubs and beaches. Naturally, all of these business people had to employ additional staff to handle the increased flow of customers, boosting employment figures for the parish, even if only temporarily.

Interestingly, in discussion with Byron Lee, I learnt that the first year Carnival Countdown was held at Chukka Cove, over fourteen thousand patrons attended the show. He told me that after a few years, this levelled off to an average of eight thousand. Over the last three years, this number has been further reduced to an average of four thousand yearly.

This should not come as a surprise and the reason is quite obvious. When Carnival started, it was tapping into a trend that had begun at the start of the decade of the '90s whereby Kingstonians largely vacationed in Ocho Rios on the Easter weekend. Synergy Productions had started a two-day family fun fair, including a live show at a small village in St Mary called Bonham Springs, which got its main support from city dwellers. The size of the event quickly mushroomed, before it became extinct with its parent company. To some extent, it is true to say that Synergy Productions' demise coincided with the growth of Carnival and Soca music in Jamaica.

Chukka Cove Carnival Countdown gave additional impetus to the relatively new vacation trend and initially was the lone big event pulling in the crowds. Since then however, the entertainment and recreational choices, as demonstrated above, are much more diverse. In another modern parallel to the Jews of old, this has dispersed Carnival's target audience, in what is essentially a small economy with a limited potential market. So what is a boon to the overall economy is not necessarily synonymous with the self-interest of any particular promoter, especially since the costs of the productions do not decrease as the competition increases. The reality is that, without adequate sponsorship, many of these events would be unsustainable.

Unfortunately, I must close with an unfavourable comment. Jamaican audiences have a disgusting, anti-social habit that we have to face up to and attempt to curb. One common factor at the end of all of these functions, was meat particles and bones on the grounds. The habit of throwing away food particles as we eat does not occur to this magnitude anywhere else in the world where I have attended concerts and festivals, and it is certainly not because sufficient garbage disposal receptacles are not provided at most of these venues. Nor is this habit traditional in Jamaica. This is just another manifestation of the prevailing breakdown in our national social order and cultural mores.

This backward cultural tendency is unhygienic and also has a very negative impact on the environment, throwing it out of whack. It only serves the proliferation of ants and other termites, rodents and scavengers.

If You Fail To Prepare...

Over the last month, I have had the pleasure of working with Byron Lee in the planning of the physical aspects (venue related) of the Jamaica Carnival Countdown, to be held at Richmond Estate Recreation Park on Sunday, March 23, 2008. It has been an intriguing experience on two fronts.

Although our paths have crossed many times over the years, this is my first opportunity to work with the legendary producer/bandleader in his capacity primarily as a producer. His innate civility and courteous disposition is charming and conducive to an open, frank and creative working environment.

Secondly, while I do not possess his even temperament and could therefore never dare to compare, I now realise that as a fellow producer, I have cultivated and share many common working traits and business techniques with the “Dragon” (as his intimate friends call him). I admire how he approaches his task as a producer because he leaves nothing up to chance. He has acquainted himself with all aspects of the event- from public relations and promotion, to the physical layout and security, to his forte- the technical inputs. Byron applies this vast knowledge in organising his very tight team of senior managers in the Lee Enterprise and their sponsors and suppliers.

Byron is meticulous and a stickler for details. He along with his aide de camp, Errol Gayle, preliminarily met with me to discuss conceptually the broad outlines for the venue arrangements. He based his pre-design on his experience at the venue last year and the restrictions attendant on new infrastructure now in place at the venue. Once these were agreed to, I was next visited by his technical team led by Lenworth ‘Squeeze’ Samuels. Jointly, being guided by the physical and technical requirements of the event, the precise locations and areas of the various structures and infrastructure were defined and a preliminary layout created. Also, other organisational tasks were examined such as garbage, sanitation, electrical needs, supply and distribution of lighting, plumbing, front of house, temporary fencing and the installation of additional access points.

When the next meeting was convened, this time Byron had brought along additional members of his team. This included his daughter Julian Lee-Samuels, whose focus is the administrative portfolio. She is the quintessential chief operating officer of Lee’s enterprises. She had legitimate concerns relating to the initial layout submitted, based on her intimate knowledge of what the sponsors and suppliers required, and was trenchant in her demands for the appropriate modifications. Byron and Julian huddled, while we all retreated to a discrete distance, and soon the Dragon had a suitable compromise to resolve the issue while maintaining the integrity of the initial concept. You see, Byron has designed the venue layout to accommodate 5000 patrons and he does not want any ‘dead’ space, either at the back or to the side of his audience. Most Jamaican promoters have this fear because to our local journalists, free space implies failure and none of us want negative media reviews. As you well know, I challenge this notion because I wish all Jamaicans to experience how exhilarating and liberating it feels to stand alone in a very large wide open field. I think our national leaders understand the psychology behind this notion too. At various points in time, both the Hon. Edward Seaga and the Hon. P.J. Patterson as prime ministers have attempted to implement programmes to pull down the zinc fences in the ghettos that keep our people and their minds enclosed.

The next step in Byron’s implementation programme was a staggered meeting on location. On Thursday, March 13, he brought in the sponsors and suppliers at 11:30 am and went through the physical plan in great detail. Slight adjustments were conceded based on the peculiarities of some participants operations. By 1:30 pm when the media arrived, all outstanding issues had been resolved and one united Jamaica Carnival team met and briefed the press.

Clearly, what I have recorded here are merely snippets based on my observations. For these meetings to be successful, a lot of organisational work has to take place in between each meeting as the programme develops. In his comments at the media briefing Squeeze told us that Byron’s credo is, “if you fail to prepare, prepare to fail”, and he obviously abides very closely by the philosophy.

The words rang home to me because just the Saturday before, we had organised one of our Rock Away parties. We had carefully projected and planned for 600 patrons, but over 1000 turned up and the cashiers selling food and beverage tickets were overwhelmed. This caused people to wait an inordinately long time in line to acquire a drink ticket, leaving us with some disgruntled patrons and significantly reduced potential sales at our bar and restaurant.

In her opening remarks, Byron’s daughter Julian made a profound observation. She pointed out that in the 1960’s Byron Lee introduced uptown to Ska music, which was up to then created and played almost exclusively downtown. Ironically, thirty years later in the 1990’s he popularised the Soca music, which was mainly played uptown, among the downtown masses. Byron then added to her comment that he has written a clause in his will, mandating that as long as Jamaica Carnival continues to exist, the free concerts must remain an essential and integral feature, including the street parades – play mas!