MoBay tallying Beryl’s damage but ready for Reggae Sumfest
Published:Friday | July 12, 2024 | 12:05 AMAdrian Frater/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
While St James was not spared the wrath of Hurricane Beryl, and the municipal corporation is now busily tabulating the damage that was done, the city of Montego Bay remains in full preparation to host the 2024 edition of Reggae Sumfest, which will start this Sunday.
“The St James Municipal Corporation is doing further impact assessment post-Beryl. However, we are confident that the city is ready to receive the highly anticipated Reggae Sumfest,” Mayor Richard Vernon told The Gleaner yesterday.
“I also spoke with chief promoter Joe (Bogdanovich) and he’s in great spirits. He is confident that tickets are moving faster than ever. All lights remain on green.”
Like the many revellers, Vernon anticipates that the city will be the perfect host for the seven-day festival which is expected to generate US$20 million in earnings.
At the official launch of the festival last month, he shared that a red carpet-styled welcome awaits visiting reggae fans, who have been descending on Montego Bay every year since the inaugural staging in 1993.
Within a day of the passing of Hurricane Beryl, Bogdanovich, the chief executive officer of DownSound Entertainment, promoters of the festival, was in Montego Bay making checks on the Catherine Hall Entertainment Centre, venue for the two major nights of the festival.
In fact, to the delight of the overseas fans, some of whom were fearing that they might be forced to alter their summer vacation plans, Bogdanovich made it clear that the festival would go ahead as planned with all the advertised acts still onboard.
“I am encouraging folks, particularly those in Jamaican diaspora cities like New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Atlanta, Florida, California, Toronto and North Carolina who have been big supporters of the festival to purchase tickets before they run out because the early indicators are that 2024 will be bigger and possibly the best one ever,” said Bogdanovich.
Had the hurricane affected the staging of the music festival it would have been a devastating blow to the tourism sector as at the launch, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett said Sumfest, which is being staged on the eve of Jamaica’s Emancipation/Independence celebrations is expected to “infuse vitality into the economy”.