Bajan Reggae Night, part of the 2012 Digicel Barbados Reggae Festival, started off 45 minutes late and came to an anticlimactic end promptly at 3 a.m. yesterday.
It was divided into four segments separated by short breaks to accommodate the performances of fewer than the anticipated 61 artistes.
Only 54 of those slated to perform actually got onstage.
Li’l Rick, one of Barbados’ most popular performers, and six others were missing from the line-up. Li’l Rick was scheduled to be the final act, but immediately following the performance of Peter Ram, the MC quickly thanked the waiting patrons for their support and announced the end of the highly anticipated show.
Perhaps the worst act of the night came from performing brothers Twin Man – for a while they seemed determined to go over the allotted six minutes.
“Don’t even interfere,” said one of the duo when they were told their time had expired. And despite the crowd calling for their exit from the stage, they refused to do so before the operators turned off their microphones.
Immediately following the event, Freddie Hill, one of the organizers of the show which is in its second year, told the DAILY NATION he was satisfied with the night’s proceedings but admitted that the turnout could have been better.
“I am pleased with the turnout, it is better than I expected, and [the show] finished on time. We had to go by the guidelines,” he said.
“I am glad the people came out. It could have been better attended, but it was not to make money from this though. We just wanted to give back something. We have to build and this is the building process,” he added.
Hill revealed that organizers were already making plans for next year and said they would be presenting about 20 artistes next time around.
“Next year we are going to let the Barbadian public do the selecting of their best 20 because to have 61 artistes is a lot. They have to rush through the set.
“We are looking to cut it down . . . . We are going to make our choices too; we may choose ten of them and let the Barbadian public choose the rest,” he said.
Despite a not-so-lively start to the final segment of the show, which saw 17 performers taking to the stage, artistes such as Fari, Kid Site, Daddy Mark, Brutal, Crimeson and Peter Ram were able to revive the crowd who appeared a bit weary during most of the earlier performances of that segment.
The night was incident-free. (MM)
