Since its establishment 12 years ago, the Digicel Reggae Festival has grown into a premier international reggae event.
So much so that producers, FAS Entertainment – Al Gilkes and Freddy Hill – are now striving for ways to sustain that growth. One idea that Gilkes said they were exploring was to look beyond Barbados and Jamaica for content.
Speaking to the media Wednesday on the sidelines of a tour of several of the venues where the events will be held, the seasoned promoter said that the festival had now outgrown Barbados.
Gilkes said that sometime in the future he would like the festival expanded from focusing strictly on reggae to more of a world music brand, which he said would make it easier for them to fill the stages with a variety of different genres of music and so branch out from servicing one specific demographic.
“When you are dealing with a specific genre of music and you are presenting it every year – (twice a year including Hennessy Artistry) we use a significant amount of reggae artistes. But when you are reusing and using reggae performers from just out of little Jamaica you tend to find yourself recycling and then people start saying, ‘I like him, but again?’ So in my opinion, we have to look beyond Jamaica and Barbados.
This year FAS Entertainment has begun this process by booking Guyana’s Natural Black on the card for Reggae On The Hill but they also desire to attract talent from other regional and international markets.
He said: “We have to look to the wider Caribbean in terms of sourcing our reggae artistes. Unbelievably, we were introduced to a reggae group from China. The problem is the cost of getting them here, but if you hear that group you would believe they are pure reggae. It is a matter of if we get the support to start sourcing non-Jamaican/Caribbean acts to support those that we are bringing from the Caribbean.
This is why sponsorship is so important, Gilkes said. Heaping praise on title sponsors Digicel as well as the Barbados Tourism Management Inc. (BTMI), Gilkes expressed gratitude for their continued support.
He explained that the BTMI came on board when they realised the critical role that the festival plays in spurring an increase in arrivals, particularly at the end of April.
“Since then, they have grown with their support but this year they have really gone overboard with their support marketing the festival because they realised the festival brought in around 3 000 people . . . [from] Europe, North and South America, Australia, Japan and across the Caribbean. So we were able to provide them those details and they decided this year they are really going to put their support behind us. LIAT has come on board and they are offering a special package to Barbados for Caribbean people to come to the festival,” he said.
“We are very happy about that and if we have been moaning and groaning about needing some further assistance because . . . the bigger it grows, the greater a burden it is on us as a financial venture. Fortunately, we have people like Digicel and a lot of other sponsors who have come on board or returned this year . . . . We are still very happy for now,” Gilkes added. (SDB Media)
