5 Questions With ... Kamal Bankay
Published:Friday | May 31, 2024 | 12:06 AM
Carnival season is officially over and Xodus Carnival retains the title of the biggest carnival band. As the summer approaches, party-goers are anxiously anticipating the 15th anniversary of the best summer series, Dream WKND. With only two months to go, we took the opportunity to feature Kamal Bankay, chairman of Dream Entertainment and executive chairman Xodus Carnival, for our Five Questions With ... feature.
Although Dream WKND is a Jamaican product, the brand, which has successfully integrated itself into multiple international markets, recently hosted its UK staging, which was sold out on the same day tickets went on sale. Additionally, from June 29-30, the Dream Team will be taking over the streets of New York as they have booked the Queen of Dancehall, Spice, to perform.
Bankay’s entertainment endeavours are not limited to the aforementioned as he wears multiple caps in the industry. He is an internationally renowned disc jock, co-founder of Ribbiz, chairman of Carnival in Jamaica, and curator of the Diplo and Major Lazor events in Jamaica.
Over the years, he has strengthened the public and private partnership for development of the entertainment industry through his appointments on various boards and oversight committees. Bankay is immensely passionate about evolving the entertainment industry in Jamaica and is consistently making strides to improve the same.
1.What inspired you to pursue a career in entertainment?
My love affair with the entertainment industry began when I was a teenager. I started as a young DJ in high school, where I also started throwing parties. After a few years, I realised three things: I was good at both, I could make a little money doing it, and I loved entertainment more than anything else I was exposed to.
2. As the group chairman of Dream Entertainment Ltd, what is your five-year vision for the company?
Two keywords: growth and diversification. We intend to grow both locally and internationally. To grow locally we must increase the size and scale of our existing festivals. Dream Weekend Negril will be a bigger overall festival with more lead-up events, exclusive pop-up parties during the weekend, as well as brand activations. Xodus Carnival will introduce brand-new events to the party calendar like the recently completed BIG boat tailgate with Major Lazer sound system and the upcoming Fête Gala during Carnival in Jamaica’s highlight week. Both our brands are growing significantly internationally by doing a combination of festivals, fêtes, and carnival mas in New York, Toronto, Miami, London, Europe, Barbado,s and Cayman over the next 12 months.
3. What is the best part of being an international DJ?
Touring the world as a DJ is nothing short of amazing, especially in 2023, opening for Marshmallow and Tiesto at Miami Music Week and F1 Miami Race week, and, of course, playing the epitome of EDM festivals, Tomorrowland in Belgium. This gives you the experience as a true performing artiste, connecting with people (you don’t know) from all over the world and sharing moments with them by playing your favourite songs, and having the crowd react with emotion and passion is exactly why, after all of this, I still DJ at every opportunity.
4. What are your travel must-haves?
Travel must-haves for the long flights for me include a soft lounge-material hoodie, soft lounge-wear pants, running shoes for long airport walks, iPad loaded with movies and Netflix downloads, my laptop loaded with my music to sort and create remixes, Apple airpods, and something to snack on ... a sandwich, Kind bars, and bags of B&G plantain chips.
5. As you continue to grow in the industry, what are some of your professional goals?
To help to grow the festival industry overall in Jamaica whereby we are having 20 major festivals annually instead of six, inspire youth to choose entertainment as a career as well as pass on as much knowledge to them as I can so as to sharpen their learning curve. I also aim to help standardise progressive things that are norms for the entertainment industry elsewhere, e.g., entertainment districts and zones, dedicated festival grounds, etc, keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in events ... innovate and create on the cutting edge of global entertainment. Lastly, I want to assist in lifting our nightlife (nightclub) and hospitality industry to First World standards in sound, lighting, and aesthetics.