Location was everything

An obvious consequence of the COVID-19 crisis for the Jamaican entertainment sector has been the movement from the physical to the virtual space. The major extended Reggae Month celebration in February 2021, which focused on new content, and the two-night Rebel Salute in January, which took a retrospective approach by presenting mainly recordings from its over two-decade history, were at two ends of the online adjustment spectrum. On the other hand, Reggae Sumfest bucked the virtual trend, with murmurs of hopes for an October staging with an intricate framework of protocols. As the government tries to contain this latest spike, it seems to be a gamble that will not pay off – Reggae Sumfest’s organisers should avoid the perceptions of bias and disregard for public safety that are now attached to Mocha Fest in May and Dream Weekend in August. For some persons who attended the latter it seems to have turned out to be a nightmare, but they made a choice.

A more subtle fallout from the COVID-19 crisis on Jamaica’s health sector is the shift of events to the USA. It may seem to be a good thing, not only that the show goes on but also that the organisers of events and the Jamaican service providers involved ‘eat a food’. And, it can be a seriously extra-large serving of greenbacks – the Chug It beach party series is slated for a Labour Day Weekend staging in Florida today as part of a $2 billion deal. Xaymaca Carnival Band did a weekend in Florida in early May (although there may be some debate about how Jamaican it was, not only in terms of its soca/calypso format but also Carnival in Jamaica’s lack of integration with the general Jamaican society). So, we can export Jamaican-branded events much as we export Red Stripe (made in Jamaica but not a Jamaican-owned company). It is not new, as the Sting concert has been staged in Miami and the Reggae Sunsplash tours through Japan are the stuff of musical legend.

However, in the current context there is a danger in changing location. It shows that the original physical space is really irrelevant and while that may be an advantage in the short term, in the long run events which are cut off from their points of origin run a very high risk of eventually withering and dying in the spaces to which they have been transplanted. We have a local example of this even within Jamaica, as Reggae Sunsplash left Montego Bay after its 1993 renewal and wandered hither and yon before its last gasp in Portmore, St Catherine. It is no coincidence that Chug It (in its foreign format) and Xaymaca (even from being held in Jamaica) lean towards the all-inclusive model, that staple of the Jamaican tourism industry which provides a filtered, sheltered travel experience which can be replicated anywhere, as long as the support staff with the requisite exotic accents and supplies of selected authenticity can be shipped through the gates. For those who have had the all-inclusive experience, however, and are able to compare it to the Jamaican side of the resort’s walls, filtered is quickly replaced by watered-down (like when you don’t have enough sugar and stretch the juice).

But a cultural experience is not like a BPO or former Freezone factory set-up, which can go in the blink of an eye. It requires nurturing from the people whose personal experience created that event and in the current scenario where moving online or outside of Jamaica is possible and par for the course, there may be a mindset creeping in that location was not everything. There is, however, a reason why the all-inclusive package holidays that include airfare, ground transportation and all things taken care of in accommodation. They know that moving to the source is as much a part of the sense of having done something special as actually being there. It is a principle that has been hugely successful for the Welcome to Jamrock Reggae Cruise, which sails from Florida to Jamaica (stopping at two ports) and back. It is an all-inclusive experience which moves to the location that produced the experience that cruisers revel in with a slate of live and recorded music performances on board. For this pilgrimage, location is everything.

It is something to remember or those who may get to the stage of thinking who needs Jamaica when we can package and transplant the Jamaican experience.

Mel Cooke covered Jamaican entertainment as a print journalist for almost two decades, overlapping with his MPhil research on dancehall and experiential marketing with the Institute of Caribbean Studies, UWI, Mona, where he is now working on a PhD while lecturing in the Bachelor of Arts, Communication Arts and Technology (BACAT) programme at the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech, Ja.).