By Ayanna Kirton, Staff ReporterROBERT RUSSELL, one of the directors for Red Stripe Reggae Sumfest said Friday night's turnout, the fifth day in the six-day concert series, was disappointing and may impact the bottom line for the festival held in Montego Bay last week.
According to Mr. Russell, in order to achieve financial success, Reggae Sumfest would have had to have higher numbers in attendance for three nights. This year, however, "Numbers were down by 25 per cent" for International Night I, which was expected to be the high revenue earner, he said.
INCLEMENT WEATHER
"The turnout for International Night I, perhaps one of Sumfest's most highly anticipated nights, which featured U.S. hip-hop artists, Kanye West and Ludacris, as well as local headliner, Sizzla, was affected by the inclement weather that plagued most of the island last weekend," said Mr. Russell.
In addition to the bad weather, the director said Friday night's performance led the organisers to question whether hip-hop music had run its course in terms of popularity among Jamaican concert goers. "These are some of the factors that could have contributed to it so in our post mortem we will go back to the drawing board to see where we went wrong and create solutions to make next year a better one," said Mr. Russell.
Indicating Sumfest's most successful nights, Mr. Russell said dancehall night attracted the highest number of patrons with almost 15,000 persons in attendance, followed by the final night of the series, International Night II, which featured Grammy winning singer, Lionel Richie.
SMOOTH
Overall, the organisers said Sumfest went smoothly this year, as security for the event was heightened to combat any occurrences of theft or vandalism that had plagued the organisers last year. The implementation of bar coded tickets, as well as turn style ticket readers at all entrances made it easier for the organisers to detect bogus tickets.
Mr. Russell noted that revenues had not been calculated just yet, as the organisers were still waiting on the various ticket outlets to report their earnings.
"We are hoping it will show a profit, but we know that last year was far better than this year," said the director.
