August 25, 2007 will go down in the weather history logs as a perfect day&Omega perfect day for doing whatever pleases a restless soul on a hot but inviting day. With blue skies engulfing majestic scenes all over NYC of lush vegetation and endless promise for an eventful day, there was much anticipation among my friends and I to make the best of one of the last days of summer, having had plans to go REAL HARD on August. But in the world of reggae music, that day will go down as one of the worst, if not THE worst, for reggae festivals in these 50 United States&Omega I’d wanna bet the WWW (whole wide world) as well.

We made plans to make our entrance around 5:00p.m. You know how cool people get down, we haffi do the fashionable late ting&Omega we got that down to a science. Anyways, we were replete with expectation of nuff niceness, because with the likes of Mavado, Bounty Killer, Buju, Ninja Man and others, you’d have to be slow to think that this show would not be a sell-aff affair. Low and behold, I have to rethink the latter, because sell aff is the last thing that comes to mind when I think of what transpired. These choice words seem much more appropriate: robbery, terrible, poor, unorganized.

So we rolled in around 6:30pm, because you know we always off with the time thing. When I entered the grounds, I knew instantly something was off. I said to myself “No sah dis no mek it ah tall.” I had never been to this event, but a friend of mine who had attended in prior years mentioned instantly upon entering the event that it is usually much more crowded. But I told myself that “tings ah go gwaan”. The crowd that I expected for such an event, was just not there. A little brain power would tell anyone that most reggae fans were probably going to skip Carifest for Irie Jamboree, scheduled for September 2. But I was already there so meh tell mehself say with the kind of lineup booked for this event, the artist would have to try real hard to f*ck the thing up. But instead, I should have thought the ORGANIZERS, not the performers had the capacity to ruin the event. And guess what, the organizers DID try and succeeded beautifully to f*ck the whole thing up.

Well people, between 7:00p.m and about 8:45pm, I felt like I was gonna burst with disappointment. My friends kept uttering that “dem kindah f*ckery yah caaan gwaaan ah Jamaica, else ah bokkle wouldah pick dem up.” People, I kid you not, between said time slot, the people had fashion shows and turned the place into a dance. At one point I started to jam, because money done shell out, but by 8:30pm, I was ready to throw up some choice words to the MC who seemed to be talking like a parrot to BC. Collie Buddz started his performance around 8:45pm and to my disappointment he did not have a live band. I don’t know about any reggae fan but myself. When I pay my money to go to an event like that, I am paying for a live BAND, not an artist singing over a recorded track. A little after Collie, they started setting up Shiloh, Buju’s band. Finally I said “yes, its about BC time, they put this sh*t in motion.” But meh waan tell you say, the people dem had another fashion show before Buju hit the stage. It was not until around 9:10pm before the Man himself, made his appearance. Buju is in a class all by himself, ever looking fresh and always equipped with the natural vocals to please the crowd. He came out strong with a brief ‘Driver’ introduction and the crowd had no qualms about expressing their glee for the man and his music.

Needless to say, the event was overcast by the controversial issue of anti-gay lyrics in reggae music. Protestors at the gate made it clear their disdain for such content and one of the artists who they have issue with is Buju Banton. Buju did not touch the issue on stage but subtly tried to sound out on it when his mike started bleeping out his words. The crowd of course railed up in excitement in agreement with the artist. Buju kept it moving and gave the audience a first class look into what reggae music should strive for, excellence. Buju’s performance lasted about 35-45 minutes. Next up was Mavado, the man of the hour. He did his thing, backed by Bounty Killer’s band. His performance was the highlight of the show for me, not because of his performance skills, but because I am such a huge fan of the “Anyway” artist. I just love that ‘anyway’. It’s a mantra for life&Omega whatever you find yourself up against, just keep it moving with an ‘anyway’ attitude. It works for me all the time.

Next up was Bounty Killer and the fearless one spared no words when it came to expressing his feelings on the gay issue. The crowd reacted with endless “mo fiyah” and love for the man who dared to say in essence “f*ck the MAN.” But his bravery was met with endless sabotaging. Suddenly his mike too started skipping and little after 10 minutes, his performance was stopped. The crowd went crazy and started throwing trash onto the stage. This only went on for a little while because Ninja Man came out blazing in full white and a crown blinging from left to right. Ninjah too did his thing but by the time he entered the scene, the crowd had already given up on the event and unfortunately within about 15 minutes of his performance, the crowd started dissipating.

So I say to the organizers of this event: “where was Merciless, Lucky Dube, Sean Kingston and Pinchers?” There should be a law against false advertising that says monies will be returned when these things happen. It’s not right for these people to do such a sloppy job of such an event and walk away with their purses well-lined with reggae fans’ hand working loot. Where is justice for these trifling set of thieves? Yes, if this is not robbery, then the word should be taken out of existence. Carifest organizers, next year you can be sure that this girl, plus countless others will have learnt a thing or two from this experience and never again will you people earn the rewards of my greenbacks. Start a campaign and call it ‘Carifest Refund’, I’ll use my credit towards Irie Jamboree and hope that they will come correct.

Click here to view photos about this event.

For Reactions email me at shotta@nowadayzdancehall.com

Reported by: Disappointed In Queensstrong>

Photography: County Man

Layout and Design: B.Diamondz and Mistah Shakes

Edited by: Lazarus

Nowadayzdancehall.com 2007

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