30 years of Reggae Sumfest – Part I

Reggae Sumfest turns 30 this year. Although, the organisers style it as the biggest reggae music festival, it also serves as the longest-running music festival in Jamaica. With the first staging in 1993, Reggae Sumfest owes its origins to another local music festival, Reggae Sunsplash.

Reggae Sunsplash was created in 1978 by Synergy Productions Ltd and had its first staging at Jarrett Park in Montego Bay. The inspiration behind the festival came from a tourism project Singles Week, which was organised by the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) and the New York-based public relations firm, Peter Martin and Associates (PMA). The members of Synergy seized on this and approached both the JTB and PMA to expand the Singles Week and so, Reggae Sunsplash was born.

The seven-night festival would captivate middle/upper class Jamaicans and foreign tourists. Its popularity would continue a year later when Bob Marley performed what would be his final performance in Jamaica, when he graced the Sunsplash stage on July 7, 1979 as the leading musician of Bob Marley and The Wailers. Still, with the origins of dancehall music in the 1980s, the organisers added a Dancehall Night component to the festival in 1982. In her book, Inna Di Dancehall: Popular Culture and the Politics of Identity in Jamaica, cultural academic and researcher, Dr Donna Hope, states that with the introduction of Dancehall Night, Reggae Sunsplash “[created] a space for the increasingly popular local grassroots and inner-city audience who enjoyed the music”. Dancehall Night, which occurred on the Thursday night of the festival, would grow to be the night that drew the largest crowd. Then in 1988, a Sound System Clash was introduced followed by a Caribbean Night and World Beat Night in 1992.

However, by the early 1990s, a loss in sponsorship and a series of relocations, first to Kingston and then the Jam World Entertainment Centre in Portmore, led to the festival’s decline. In Sunsplash’s departure from Montego Bay, others saw an opportunity. In her article, ‘A Tale of Two Festivals’, Pat Meschino states that persons in Montego Bay “could not afford to let the revenue that Sunsplash generated slip away from their city, particularly during the summer. As such, a group of Montegonian businessman, mostly bankers, established Summerfest Production with the aim of creating a rival music festival to be staged in island’s second city. Thus, Reggae Sumfest was born.

The first staging took place from August 11-14, 1993 and was held at the Bob Marley Entertainment Centre in Catherine Hall. Following a similar model of Sunsplash, Wednesday, August 11, was opening night where Rita Marley was presented with a commemorative plaque by Summerfest director, Mickey Horns. On Thursday, August 12, it was Roots and Culture Night, featuring Bunny Wailer, Sugar Minott and others. On Friday, Dancehall Night featured the likes of Bounty Killer, Lady Saw, Ninja Man and Spragga Benz. The final night was Singers/International Night and featured Barrington Levy, Super Cat and Chaka Demus and Pliers; and the American rap trio, Naughty by Nature. The first staging was successful and so it continued every summer throughout the ‘90s and when Sunsplash would have it final staging of the century in 1998, Reggae Sumfest emerged as the go-to music festival on the island.

Naughty by Nature would be the first but definitely not the last of foreign acts to grace Sumfest stage. Singers/International Night had evolved into International Night 1 and International Night 2, to be held on its Friday and Saturday nights, respectively. As such, we have seen the likes of Alicia Keys (2001), Snoop Dogg (2001), Destiny’s Child (2003), Rihanna (2006), Lil Wayne (2008), Keisha Cole (2008), Usher (2010), Nicki Minaj (2011), Miguel (2013), Future (2014), Common (2015), Jennifer Hudson (2015) and many other international acts performed in Jamaica.

Still despite its international reputation as the ‘World’s Biggest Reggae and Dancehall Festival’, it does have it controversies. As music has evolved, so has its lyrical content but the island’s does have laws to monitor public performances. Over the years, a few artistes have faced legal charges over their performances on Sumfest stage. In 2001, Snoop Dog, Ja Rule and Beenie Man were all charged for swearing onstage. In 2003, Sean Paul was served with a summons for the use of profanity during his Sumfest set. In 2008, it was Bounty Killer. A year later, both Vybz Kartel and Mavado were charged for swearing; and in 2011, Nicki Minaj was charged $1,000 for swearing during her performance. Still, throughout the history of festival and the backlash artistes faced over their lyrical content on Sumfest stage, one artiste definitely stands over all – Lady Saw.

From her first Sumfest performance in 1993, where she graced the stage in a black mesh outfit with a pair of white and red kerchiefs – one around her neck, the other around her head – Lady Saw has pushed the boundaries of how persons believe a woman should behave onstage. In a review of her performance in 1993, one Gleaner article states, “She went to the bottom of the pit and came up with sheer filth and vulgar lyrics which made Yellow Man at his worst seem like a Boy Scout.” Still, she did not let up. So when in the summer of 2001, with a wave of artistes facing charges for cursing during their sets at other events, the Montego Bay Parish Council proposed banning Dancehall Night from Sumfest. This, they say, was to prevent the “sexual gyration of children, the chanting of graphic lyrics, ganja and cocaine smoking and banned local and foreign acts known for outlandish behaviour”. The proposal did not go through but still, Lady Saw could not perform at Sumfest that year. Leading up to the event, she was banned from performing in Montego Bay due to previous live performances. It would not be until 2006 that she made her return to the Sumfest stage. In a full circle moment in 2012, she was crowned the Queen of Dancehall by the festival organisers. A year later at the festival’s 21st staging, Marion Hall did her last performance under the name Lady Saw.

Female artistes have been the backbone of Reggae Sumfest’s most memorable moments. Dancehall entertainers such as Macka Diamond, Pamputtae, D’Angel, Ce’Cile, Ishawna and Tanya Stephens have given some of the festival’s most memorable performances. Last year, the island’s newest international crossover artiste, Shenseea, headlined the festival. She would follow in Jr Gong’s footstep, when she brought her son onstage during her set; Jr Gong previously brought his 12-year-old son, Elijah, onstage during his 2018 performance. Still, arguably, no artiste holds the title of the best performer to ever grace the Sumfest stage than Spice. Always accompanied by a team of dancers, theatrics, costumes, lyrics, and acrobatics, there are too many Sumfest-Spice moments to list. On the top of the list though is her been crowned Queen of Dancehall in 2022; but at her best, she has not only entertained but used her platform as satire. One of these moments was in 2010, when she opened her performance being led onstage by a mock Tivoli demonstration.

Speaking of 2010, one cannot speak of that year’s staging without mentioning Vybz Kartel’s performance. As the most influential artiste of 21st-century dancehall, Vybz Kartel has had a few memorable moments at Sumfest – one can recall his 2008 performance in a full length fur coat in Jamaica’s summer heat. However, in the wake of a state of emergency called as a result of Tivoli Garden’s third incursion, he was one of six persons with whom the St Catherine South police announced they wanted to have a few words with. Kartel eventually surrendered himself to the Greater Portmore Police Station where no one knew the length of his detention. This was an issue as he was an headline act for the festival where he was slated to perform on the morning of July 16. As history would have it, Kartel was released on that exact morning of the incursion on July 16, 2010, and made it onstage just in time for his performance. He opened his act wearing a US prison uniform, an orange jumper and handcuffs, with the theatrics to go alongside it. In 2022, Dexta Daps would re-enact the performance to open his own set.

Despite all controversies around and to come out of the festival’s history, it has always been a place where Jamaica’s best artistes, musicians, designers, stylists, creative directors, graphic designers, sound and video production professionals, and so many other creatives have put their talent on display. It is why today, Reggae Sumfest generates a reported billion dollars for the Jamaican economy yearly.

In 2016, Joseph Bogdanovich and his Downsound Entertainment purchased Reggae Sumfest. Forever evolving, it would soon do away with its International Night and introduce livestreaming of the festival. Despite the change, its reputation as the world’s biggest reggae and dancehall music festival has never left and it is still a major highlight of many Jamaican musicians’ careers; even more so, if you are given the esteemed pleasure of closing out the festival night.

This year, we watched many new and established Jamaican artiste grace the stage in Montego Bay and it served as a reminder of how over the past 30 years of its existence, Reggae Sumfest has contributed immensely to Jamaica’s identity.

- J.T. Davy is a member of the historical and political content collective, Tenement Yaad Media, where she co-produces their popular historical podcast, Lest We Forget. She is also a writer at the regional collective, Our Caribbean Figures. Send feedback to jordpilot@hotmail.com and entertainment@gleanerjm.com.