JERKED REGGAE

Roy Wilkins Park in Queens was the venue for this year's Jerk, Roots and Yam Festival.  Sunday July 16th was a hot day with temperature well over 80 degrees.  Those patrons who arrived early for the 11 a.m. opening, were seated under the few shade trees, getting as much cover from the sun as possible.  The perimeter of the park was lined with tents, most of them with yellow tops indicating the jerk, roots, yam signage.  

Many were in the park to enjoy the atmosphere.  Some only came for the food, many for the promise of varied jerk items.  

Many of the stalls had the traditional serving of curried and brown stewed  meat with the token offering of jerk chicken.  I think the jerk theme would have been better served if all the offerings were jerked.  The escovitch or roast fish and corn was well represented.  Of course roast yam was available even though the wait time was too long. If the meat wasn't your style then the fruit stall with the blenders running was where you could get a bag of guinep, some other fruit, or a fruit smoothie.  

I don't know if it was the Krosses.  Kudos to Girlie and crew, the performance was well received.  Catch the full play in Brooklyn and Queens.

If you only came for the musical part of the show, after standing in that boiling sun for so long, I know you left the park after 9 p.m. wondering why this was happening again.  Here it was, a show that was advertised to have artist such as Gyptian, Tonto Metro and Devonte and Eric Donaldson and many more, was unable to fulfill its part by presenting these artists.  

Of the scheduled performers, only Kisha Martin, Flava, Girlie, Ray, Goodman and Brown (stayed too long), Black Shadow (the only Calypso performer) and Ken Boothe were able to make it on stage.  Time was up and we were all  asked to leave the park within fifteen minutes of the nine o'clock ending.

What went wrong?  I am still trying to find out.  I know there was some concerns about delayed flights but in my opinion, the performers should have been in town before the day of the performance.

There were many artists that were in the venue all day and they did not get a chance to perform.  Why wasn't the show started at an earlier time, giving those artist present, a chance to do what they came to do?

Who was in charge of the time?  That seem to be a big part of the show's failure.  We had all the time in the world and still people had to hear, "we are running out of time so you have to cut your performance short."

If we are to be taken seriously, we have to come correct.  Will the paying public get an apology for what should have been an all around enjoyable day?

To the parties responsible for this festival, this is your notice to learn from whatever went wrong this year so that the show can come correct for the next year.

Mi deh yah now!

Reggaedis  

Some of the happenings in front of and behind the stage.

(Click on image for larger view) 

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