The Good, Better, Best of Sumfest

Wednesday July 27th, 2011

 

The 19th staging of the annual music festival Reggae Sumfest took place at the Catherine Hall Entertainment Centre in Montego Bay last weekend. The perfomance reviews are out, some might be satisfied, others might be irked but for us, it's time to take a look at some of the things that reviews just could not carry. There are some performers we still have to mention — they were that good.

Cocoa Tea managed to take patrons minds off missing R Kelly and we know that because when he threw out the question "do you miss R Kelly?" there was a resounding "No!" He was in a fiery mood and there was nothing to do but allow the musical flames to envelop you.

Beres Hammond's performance was 'out of this world'. What can we say, his smooth, husky voice is just too much to resist. A well deserved award king of lovers rock.

We know I-Octane was blazing hot, but didn't realise how much until the fire almost got out of control in one section of the venue.

It's good to see our dancehall acts stepping up when it comes to giving you that much 'extra'. Tifa coming out of the gift box on stage showed she was on the right path.

Haven't seen Wayne Wonder in a while, but he more than made up for that absence. Best of all, he kept his friend Buju Banton in mind on the big festival as he performed some of his songs.

 

Of decks, sky boxes, bridges and balconies

This year saw some new things on the grounds of Catherine Hall. For the first time patrons had various choices when it came on to vantage points in viewing the show. There was Red Stripe's sky box which stood 17 feet off the ground and if height was not the thing for you, there was the option of the swag deck, where you could stand and in between watching the show, enjoy your favourite brew.

Digicel was right there in the mix with their balcony lounge, Pepsi and KFC's combined skybox was very nice and proved to be quite a comfy setting. The airbridge wrapped around the stage was for you only if you didn't mind seeing the performers' backs.

 

Rest rooms sell off!

No matter what time of the night you went to the rest rooms, there were no long lines to deal with. You could confidently open the doors as they were all clean — kudos Sumfest team.

 

Squirmishes

There were no major incidents but there was no escaping the usual man and woman mix up. There I was standing backstage enjoying the show when I felt someone brushed hard against me. Before I knew what was going on a woman was on the ground and on her knees trying to get up — a man gave her a powerful kick in the face. Even with several other patrons trying to restrain him he was determined to give her more. Just when you thought it was over, the scuffle continued at the gate...this time the police managed to nip it in the bud. Closer investigation revealed the woman drew first blood by giving the man a hard slap across his face when she noticed he came to the show with his wife.

Don't know what went down with Jah Cure's musician and the police. But there seemed to have been a little argument with a cop. It was mighty decent of Jah Cure to interrupt his performance and have the musician apologise...if we all could behave like this when we know we are wrong.

 

Speaking of Jah Cure

His gym sessions are showing! When he took off his shirt on stage, he received a lot of appreciative looks from the ladies. One woman who broke out of the pack and found her way on stage was promptly escorted off by a member of Jah Cure's team.

 

Long band changes

Until someone gets smart and invest in a revolving stage then patons will continue to be annoyed and worn out from these long band changes. We needed the patience of Job to deal with band change after band change following an artiste performance. no wonder the final act on each night are always left with few patrons to appreciate their talent!

 

Fashion

Only Spice could make her way to stage in that huge afro wig and get away with it! It seemed huge for her head, but turned out to be a hit on the fashion scene.

Who was that on the stage ... Captain America! No it was just our own dancehall deejay Elephant Man trying to be a super hero. Still the outfit generated some buzz for the deejay.

 

From the organiser's mouth

Kudo to members of the Summerfest Production team, they really worked hard to pull off another successful staging. Now that the event is over Johnny Gourzong can allow himself the luxury of reviewing the three-day event.

"Yes, the event was a successful one albeit that we were disappointed with R Kelly's cancellation," he said about his satisfaction level.

Still there was some level of satisfaction as according to Gourzong his projections for Dancehall night and International Night two were met, it was not surprising however that International Night 1 (Friday) figures fell below par.

Always one to plan ahead he is now looking forward to Sumfest 2012, "Well you know that we are always attempting to raise the bar so we will have to commence the planning of next years event almost immediately."