Teino Evans, Staff Reporter
A section of the large crowd at the 1989 Reggae Sunsplash listen to Sanchez sing one of his popular songs. The six-night musical festival was held at the Bob Marley Centre in Montego Bay, St. James. - File
THE ORIGINAL Reggae Sunsplash brought persons from all around the world to Jamaica to partake in the annual reggae festival to see the likes of Burning Spear, Jimmy Cliff, Peter Tosh, Ziggy Marley and many others.
Don Green, one of the four founding members of Reggae Sunsplash, says it was born out of a vision to provide entertainment for foreign students coming to Jamaica.
"We put together a proposal for the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB), but prior to that, Tony (Johnson) and I said we need to connect to people who were actively involved in the music industry in Jamaica because we were both away and had just returned. Tony mentioned his friend Ronnie Burke and when we went to meet."
"Ronnie, he had brought along John Wakeling with him. Ronnie introduced John and said John had been his partner and they had taken Inner Circle over to Trinidad recently. And Ronnie was already involved in the music business, he had a record shop along with Michael Johnson and Keith Webster. They had just about closed down that record shop or Ronnie was leaving it, so Ronnie and John were involved in some of the music promotions that he had done. We said no problem, especially when we found out that John was a disc jockey for JBC; we realised right there that his voice would be helpful to our project, so that's how the four of us came together and we decided to form a company and call it Synergy Production," Green recalled.
The four put a proposal to the JTB in January 1978, when the company was incorporated. The very first Reggae Sunplash was held in 1978 at Jarrett Park in Montego Bay.
ROLLER COASTER RIDE
"It was like a roller coaster ride. I graphically remember everything, yuh know, going down there weeks ahead, myself and John Wakeling, because we split up our functions, and it proved to me that when working together, we could overcome any barriers," Green said.
Many saw Sunsplash as "an impossible dream, but we found it very very interesting, very exciting, working with the musicians and there was great acceptance. The first festival was from June 23 to 30, seven nights long. The music went until sun came up, bright. We had some major acts in the first year, Third World, Barrington Levy, Jimmy Cliff. We even had a night for jazz, a Wednesday night, we had Monty Alexander, Ernest Ranglin and others."
Although Green said the event was successful in terms of the production, they lost a lot of money.
"The Tourist Board had promised to deliver 1,000 visitors, they delivered less than that and after 1978 we didn't really get much approval from them (JTB)," Green said.
Reggae Sunsplash, Green says, was responsible for creating a tourist season for Jamaica.
"When we started Sunsplash in the summer there was no tourist season. The hotels used to be closed from July and were reopened in October, after the rainy season. We told them that we could put people in there for the summer and they laughed at us and said, how we going to do that," Green recalled.
Soon after the concept of Reggae Sunsplash took off, so did the tours. "Our first oversees tour was in 1984 in Crystal Palace in London, and that sold out the venue," Green recalled. In 1985 he then spearheaded Sunsplash in Japan before further expanding to other countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and the United States.
Green is only happy that he was able to help people and contribute immensely to Jamaican music, as the inevitable demise came at a time when all odds were against them.
TOURIST SEASON
"We gave the hotels a tourist season and they started charging us winter rates in the summer and we had to pay for the artistes, had to employ our production crew. It was very costly for us during those years ... we were slowing upstream and the dollar was declining. We could not get a loan and everybody in Jamaica was benefiting the airlines, the hotels, the man in the streets, everybody. And when the bank lent us some money, they charged us over 100 per cent interest," Green said.
In addition, the political violence that led up to the 1980 election was no help, as Green said "The U.S Government was
actually telling their citizens not to come down because of the
violence." The 'conservative' wanted the event to go all-inclusive, shutting out those who were not as financially stable. Event-ually, they were forced to throw in the towel and the final show was held in St. Ann, in 1997.
PASSIONATE WORDS
Green had some very passionate words to the organisers of the imminent Sunsplash.
"Neither Ronny nor myself is involved in what they are keeping down there. Those people have no vision. The people, who now claim to own it, don't have the will, knowledge and vision. To fight for it cost money, lawyers and we have worked too hard, so we are in pursuit of happiness now," he said.
"The only way that Sunsplash can be successful is if there is a true synergy and I haven't seen that come out. You have a bunch of people who are trying to live off our reputation, our pioneering and back-breaking work," Green said.
"We'll just watch and see
how it develops, because many have tried and have ended up in disaster," he said.
Green has not totally turned his back on Jamaica, as he says his current job as a professor, teaching marketing at a university in New York, is temporary, as he still plans to work in Jamaica.
Those who attended Sunsplash still remember the days. "One of the things that I remember about Reggae Sunsplash was that it was holistic; it was more a festival that the people could relate to, true to the form. It was a
reggae festival and it drew more attention from the reggae lovers worldwide and we had more international patrons," said
Ra-umi Alkebu-lan, producer and music journalist.
"At the time you got the best of the best; it was the forerunner for all reggae festivals. I think the best that I have seen Burning Spear was at Reggae Sunsplash, around '88, and I have seen him three times. And Dennis Brown too, I think he closed that year. And Muta was good the year when the Pope visited Jamaica. Steel Pulse was good also and Shinehead, I remember him walking from the back of the audience, because people saw this person coming and he was just parting the crowd. It was held at Freeport, and I thought that was the best venue, for me. Yuh stay deh till bout 11:00 the morning yuh nuh," Alkebu-lan recalled. He attended the Friday and Saturday concerts out of the four-day festival.
