By: Precious Mills
BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (FEBRUARY 2018)- The Chairman of the Production and Artistes Selection Committee for the St.Kitts Music Festival, Jonel Powell, says this year’s early released line-up reflects quality over quantity summed up from the EC$2 million budget.
He made the disclosure during a media interview session following the full release launch ceremony held on Friday 17th February at Bank Street in Basseterre whilst echoing the sentiments of the Festival’s Chairman, Damion Hobson, about the shorter roster of entertainers collectively scheduled to take to the stage come Thursday 27 to Saturday 30th June.
This time around, in an effort to complement this quality labelling, there has been an increase of ticket price of EC$135 (US$50) per night from EC$100 (US$40). Notably, early sale of discounted tickets can be bought online (www.stkittsmusicfestival.com) for EC$95. Ticket Prices are expected to go by $10 every month leading up to the festivity.
“As the Chairman said earlier, this year we really tried to go with less quantity and more quality. The reality is the cost of artistes performance fees and all of that have been going up every year tremendously and so in the absence of our budget going up -because my budget hasn’t changed- we took the decision to try and spend a bit more on quality acts than to have a lot of not as great acts. The other thing is that we are making a sincere effort to really end the Festival a lot earlier than we’ve been doing in the past so that persons have the opportunity to go to The Strip and go to other events that might be happening. So based on our projections, we are set to finish at 1 O’clock on any given night and hopefully 1:30 the latest,” Powell told reporters.
In December 2017, the first wave of artistes was announced unveiling Patti LaBelle, Ms. Lauryn Hill and Spice.
The official line up with the newly announced entertainers of local, regional and international appeal altogether are as follows:
Thursday- Nu Vybes Band International (De Sugar Band) and the reigning Sugar Mas Road March Champions Small Axe Band, Spice, Destra, KES The Band and Nailah Blackman.
Friday- Sizzla Kalonji, August Alsina, Ishawna, Wayne Wonder, Chackademus & Pliers, Dejour and Byron Messia.
Saturday- Fetty Wap, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Patti LaBelle and Rhythm of the Beat.
In regard to the ticket restructuring, Powel pointed that for the 2018 line-up it is very reasonable since elsewhere, regionally and internationally, it would cost more.
“The Festival is government subsidized and we are only getting two millions dollars and so people expect more but we don’t have the resources to do it. A lot of patrons actually said they are prepared to spend more for better artistes, for a better experience. So this year we’re giving you better artistes, we’re giving you a better experience but it comes at cost. I don’t think the restructuring is bad; you actually have the opportunity to spend now and buy the tickets cheaper than they were last year if you buy this month and even the increments are not bad the final amount being $135 is very reasonable…US$50. If you go anywhere regionally or internationally, you are not going to get this kind of line-up for even US$100 so we are still giving you your money’s worth,” he highlighted.
Asked by this reporter whether putting out the full poster this early was easy, he replied: “It wasn’t but we made a promise and a commitment that we would and it was just a matter of putting the work in, we have a fantastic team and we are really confident that people are going to enjoy the line-up so far. The reaction from the crowd just now seemed positive. I had the sun in my eyes so I couldn’t really see who was dancing and jumping up but it sounded really good to me.”
According to Powell: “The whole point of coming out with an early launch is giving people especially visiting….months to prepare themselves to know who’s coming to put things in order and make sure they’re here for the Festival (while) locally, to make sure we bring a slate of artistes that local people are going to want to see and hear and come into the park and so at the end of the day, the majority of heads through the gates as local and so we want to please them as well as we please the international crowd…”
Asked to comment to the selection of artistes against the budget, he told this media house said: “There has just been a lot of negotiating and trying to see who’s available. It’s about timing and everything and we worked with really good agents and friends internationally and we were able to pull it off.”