By Adrian Frater, News EditorWESTERN BUREAU:
DESPITE THE international campaign being waged by gay rights groups against Jamaica's artistes who use homophobic lyrics in their performances, Summerfest Productions Limited, the promoter of Red Stripe 'Reggae Sumfest', has no plans to get involved in that debate.
"While we don't support discrimination of any kind, Summerfest cannot take on the responsibility of protecting the public from the lyrics being used by deejays," said Robert Russell, a director of Summerfest. "We are more concerned about breaches of the law such as using expletives, which we spell out in the contracts of artistes."
LIBERAL POSITION
The seemingly liberal position taken by the island's premier summer reggae show runs counter to that of some of the major companies in corporate Jamaica, who have been threatening to sever promotional ties with some artistes as well as withdraw sponsorship support from shows featuring entertainers who perform lyrics deemed vulgar or violent.
"We are willing to ask the artistes to tone down on their use of homophobic lyrics but that is as far as we will go," said Russell. "It is a delicate balancing act. There is very little a promoter can do once an artiste enters centre stage unless he is breaking the law."
"Except for possibly muting the microphone, there is very little we can do," continued Russell. "We just can't cut into an artiste's performance unless he is breaking the law. You must remember that people pay their money to hear these artistes and any attempt to interfere with their performance could cause trouble with the fans."
Since the start of the year, a number of promoters in Britain and the United States have cut top dancehall acts such as Beenie Man, Bounty Killer, Sizzla and Vybz Kartel from shows on which they were billed because of pressure from gay rights groups such as OutRage!.
"As I have said, we are against all forms of discrimination be it sexual, religious, racial or political and we want to make that absolutely clear," said Mr. Russell. "However, outside of breaches of the law, we are not getting into regulating public behaviour."
