Review of Sumfest 20

Review of Sumfest 2005

Montego Bay is host to two of Jamaica’s premiere cultural events and these are the RedStripe Reggae Sumfest and The Dancehall Queen Competition. Sumfest is undoubtedly one of Montego Bay’s premiere income earners with Robert Russell’s projected statistics proposing that it pulled to the city 5000 tourists spending a minimum of $1000 US, which equals 300 million dollars in extra revenue being pumped into our friendly city. But this year Sumfest arrived with much hullabaloo, debate and dissent. This owing to the fact dancehall giants Beenie Man and Bounty Killer had been barred from performing, and there absence carried weight that was clearly visible in the crowd on Dancehall Night.

Reggae Sumfest is platform for what is happening in and around the dancehall arena, it gives a quick zoom into the world of artistes. This year Sumfest brought to visible fore the struggle that exists between gay activists and dancehall artistes. It should be clear to everyone now, seeing the absence of Bounty Killer, Beenie Man and Vybz Kartel, which group of people is swinging more weight and packing a harder punch. It is clear to me now that foreigners whatever kind of activists they maybe are able to take strangle hold control of our culture by sheer virtue of their bank books. Welcome to “GLOBALISATION”.

The Sumfest promoters have chosen to tread a dangerously thin line by creating an event for proponents and fans of dancehall and reggae music, but yet have opted to be sponsored and dollar slaved to the music’s antagonists. I see very serious conflicts of interests here, one that threatens to make the whole event collapse. Even beyond barring Bounty and Beenie, they failed to bring acts like Buju Banton, Sean Paul, Shaggy, amongst other to bolster the line-up, for the Dancehall and International nights, the rockers night, had to miss me, due to the fact that Gregory Isaacs, Beres Hammond, UB40, Yasus Afari or Tony Rebel.

I can honestly say that the three nights I attended the event (Dancehall night and the two International nights), it was noticeably lacklustre. Dancehall night was undoubtedly rescued in sales and in terms of the level of vibes at the event by a little man from August Town by the name of Sizzla Kalonji, who the promoters thanked by axing him from Sumfest for the foreseeable future. Sizzla’s performance was an unrepentant “lyrical” assault aimed at no one else but dancehall’s strongest opponents, gay activists and outrage. Beyond that, his performance was intense and carried lots of energy; he set loose an onslaught of hits, ranging from his love songs to anti-gay songs to his gun songs, and right back to his early songs. All in all he was very energetic and his performance fantastic. However it would be unfair to mention Dancehall Night and not make note of the commendable effort of Turbulence whose song “Notorious” has been riding the airwaves and blasting from cars (which seem to me these days as ‘modern day mobile sound systems’) almost every where in downtown area.

After Sizzla on Dancehall night I swore there was little left to look forward to, however I was surprised by none other than the seed of the legend, the youngest veteran himself, Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley, who with surprise artillery whipped the crowd to a high, which was unprecedented for the entire Sumfest. He began his act with material from the “Halfway Tree” album, peppered with some of his even earlier songs. After that he bridge the time gap and gave audiences from every generation some of his dad’s hits. He then delved into his new material and added his brother Stephen and some of his solo career efforts to the package. At which point he seemed ready to end the show almost sending the crowd mad, a crowd that eagerly await the opening line “Welcome to Jamrock…” His performance has been the most all rounded I have ever seen.

In general however the show seems to me to be toeing a dangerous line as it pertains to pleasing audience and pleasing sponsors. I also believe had it not been for the energies and efforts of two young Rasta’s (Jr. Gong and Sizzla Kalonji) carrying the show on their backs, the “RedStripe Reggae Sumfest” may very well have been a complete flop. That’s the opinion of this humble writer and Montegonian, thanks for reading.

By Yannick Nesta Pessoa
B.A. in Philosophy
yannickpessoa@gmail.com
or yahnyk@hotmail.com