Live Reggae Music Mecca Negril To Stage First Ever Entertainment Conference Tomorrow

The much-debated issues of live Reggae music, the Noise Abatement Act, and the establishment of the Entertainment Zone and Park, are among several major agenda items on the Reggae Month Entertainment Conference scheduled for the resort town of Negril, tomorrow.

The conference is the ninth of 11 Reggae Month events endorsed by the Ministry of Entertainment and Culture, which are being held Negril, long renowned as the mecca for live Reggae music in Jamaica. 

According to the president of the Negril Entertainment Association (NEA), Ryan Morrison, the end result of the conference, which is titled “Entertainment Industry as an Engine for economic Growth in Negril”, is expected to be the creation of a Plan of Action for the current and long-term development of the entertainment Industry in the town.

“We are targeting the entire entertainment value chain because the – graphic artistes, printers, promoters, musicians, JACAP, JAMMS, police, hairdressers, … So if you start look at the value chain, it is a large amount of people who impacted; most industries.  So we are saying stop looking at entertainment as ‘one man a keep a show’… we are saying anybody involved in it, when entertainment increases you make money from it,” Morrison explained.   

Morrison also lamented the fact that due to there being no large entertainment venue to keep international music festivals akin to Reggae Sumfest and Rebel Salute, outside of the winter tourist season, the town dubbed The Capital of Casual, is unable to realise the full potential of using music to attract tens of thousands more visitors to the destination which received approximately visitors 500,000 annually.

“The thing about Negril is that we have no large space to keep entertainment events.  The most we can keep is five, six thousand anywhere around here.  We can’t keep a Rebel Salute; we can’t keep any big international shows because we have no space… Imagine if we were doing events with some big international artistes with shows where people fly in.  But, we can’t develop these big shows; we have no venues to host them,” Morrison said. 

“We believe in the off-season we can do big international shows that can draw lot of people to us in the summer times because over the last 20-odd years, I know we (tourism businesses) have never made enough money in three months to serve us for the next 12.  Never,” he continued.

Added Morrison: “We think that entertainment, used right, could be useful in the off season – the sunny time.  Typically in Negril we have three good months: January and February; December is not so hot like first time, and by March it tapers off.  So we are saying what about other months of the year?  We have seen what Dream (Entertainment) does in one week, so we are saying we know what entertainment do,” he added.

Morrison says the NEA has pinpointed lands to the north side of the town to establish an entertainment park, and a proposal has been developed and discussions are underway with the relevant authorities.

Negril, which is the westernmost town in Jamaica, has historically, had its tourism success predicated on its live Reggae music offerings by night and seven-mile white sand beach by day.  Approximately 500,000 tourists visit the town annually each year, but according to Morrison, the town remains a melting pot of visitors and locals.

“Live Reggae music is the heartbeat of entertainment for tourists; they want to see the real Reggae music; they want to see musicians playing so you tend to find that the live shows are in the tourist season time and the parties are into the off-season time.  There is  a demand for cultural reggae shows for tourists and Jamaicans love the Dancehall and the parties,” Morrison explained.

“You have to balance it because Negril is not just a tourist town, but it is a peoples town because it is the people that live in the resort twin itself.   So it is different from most other places.  There is no segregation over the years in terms of houses…  There are still elements of Negril which is people yard.  So you might build a small hotel, but a man live next door,” he added.

The success of Negril’s tourism, which skyrocketed in the 1980s, , was predicated on the abundance of live Reggae music every night of the week, particularly on the West End.

Over the years, the biggest names in Reggae have flocked to the resort town for working vacations and staycations, among them Jimmy Cliff, Yellowman and the House of Dread, Beres Hammond, Yami Bolo Sammy Dread, Louie Lepkie and Tenor Saw.

In addition, the Godfather of Dancehall Daddy U-Roy, Big Yute, Marcia Griffiths, Roots Radics with Gregory Isaacs, Third World, Dennis Brown, Melody Makers and Judy Mowatt, Beres Hammond, Charlie Chaplain, have also performed in the town, as have younger acts Bounty Killer, Beenie Man and Dexta Daps and a slew of others.

Negril was so popular with dancehall and reggae artists in the 80s, that Tyrone Taylor even penned his masterpiece “From a little Cottage in Negril” and General Trees voiced the dancehall classic ‘Gone a Negril’ during that period.   

Since the start of Reggae Month, artists such as Kymani Marley, Luciano, Romain Virgo, Louie Culture and Turbulence have headlined Reggae Month shows in Negril.  Gideon Boot artiste Richie Spice will be the final major performer of the month and will headline the Children of the Icons Concert tomorrow night at Woodstock.