Reggae Sunsplash Strikes Its Final Chord
Inter Press Service 03-JUL-99 KINGSTON, (Jul. 2) IPS -
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It started out as a festival that marked reggae's coming of age, but Reggae Sunsplash never lived up to the potential it promised in its early years. Sadly, it stands to be remembered as the festival that could have - but did not. After months of speculation, it was recently reported here that this year's event has been cancelled. According to a spokesperson from the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB), one of the show's sponsors, misuse of funds by a key member of the Sunsplash promotional team has forced the JTB to pull the plug on the festival. This year would have marked Sunsplash's 20th anniversary.
The festival was not held in 1980 when Jamaica was gripped in a bloody election campaign, and again in 1997 when the JTB refused to support Sunsplash and the rival Reggae Sumfest if both were held in the same month. Reggae Sunsplash had no rivals when it was first staged back in 1978, at a time when reggae was riding on the international acceptance of Bob Marley.
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It was the brainchild of three Jamaicans who were involved in some form or another in the music business: Tony Johnson, Ronnie Burke and John Wakeling who comprised the Synergy Company. Johnson was working at the time with the Jamaican government and had just returned from living in Los Angeles where he had been immersed in the live show scene. "He thought we were wasting a major resource, he thought our music could bring a lot of tourists here," says Burke, who at the time was a record producer.
The duo hooked up with Wakeling, a disc jockey, and drafted the lines for what would be eight days of frolic during June at Jarrett Park, a barren soccer park in Montego Bay. |
"A lot of the tourism officials didn't like the idea, we were going up against the bogeymen, namely ganja (marijuana) and Rasta (Rastafarian)," says Burke. "The hotels didn't support us and the press was unkind." Despite the skepticism, the trio took their proposal to the JTB. Berl Francis was a member of that organization's public relations department. "It was very hard to sell the concept to the JTB especially since we started late, maybe February or March," Francis recalls. "We tried to get as much information as possible out to the agencies abroad; that took a lot of writing on the artists and background info on reggae."
As far as a name for the show was concerned, Francis coined the term Sunsplash. "It came from this image that was evolving in my mind," she says. Pooling their personal assets, Johnson, Wakeling and Burke provided the bulk of the funding. |
While the festival was considered a risk, it still attracted some major names including Jimmy Cliff, Third World and Jacob Miller, and was attended by Andrew Young -- then the United States ambassador to the United Nations. "The hotels were jammed," recalls Burke with a laugh. "It was then that the potential began to reveal itself."
Though the show was a success, it was far from a financial windfall for Synergy. "Most of the fans came over the walls, we lost as much as J$100,000," he says. With teething pains eased, there was a greater buzz around Reggae Sunsplash in 1979 when Bob Marley was the headline act.
In years to come, Johnson and Burke would part ways over the festival's direction. Burke continued to promote Sunsplash in Jamaica while Johnson promoted the U.S franchise. Johnson died in 1997 from a heart-related illness. Wakeling succumbed to cancer in 1998. Burke, who sold the franchise to Rae Barrett in 1995, gave up on show promotion after filing for bankruptcy in 1994. Though the financial problems of the festival have placed a black spot on Sunsplash in recent times, Burke chooses to remember the early days when the show helped put reggae, and Jamaica, on the world map. "We brought back live music to Jamaica and established Montego Bay as a place for music," he says. "Sunsplash set the stage for other festivals around the world."
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