Big int’l acts named among lineup of artistes for 2019 emancipation festivities
Some of the Caribbean’s biggest soca, reggae and dancehall artistes are set to perform at this year’s staging of emancipation celebrations dubbed ‘The Prime Time Festiville’.
The festivities will run from July 25 to August 10 and will include acts such as Jamaican dancehall star Popcaan, reggae artiste Tarrus Riley, Trinidad & Tobago soca legend Machel Montano and Calypso veteran Baron.
They were named among the festival lineup during a media conference by the Festival & Fairs Committee (FFC) on Wednesday, June 26.
Some of the other international entertainers include Trinidad’s Destra, Voice and Olatunji, Grenada’s Mr Killa, Jamaica’s Romain Virgo, and Virgin Islands/American duo, Rock City.
Local acts will include Prime Time, who is the honoree of this year’s Road Town festivities, Monea, Sistah Joyce, VIBE, OMG, and Adam O.
Culture Minister Dr Natalio Wheatley said he is pleased with the lineup considering that one of his mandates was to have a variety of local acts participating.
He said his goal going forward is to pack the village with mainly local acts where persons can come and have an equally enjoyable time.
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Destra again????
That’s the local act boo
Oh
She here so often, she needs to be granted Belonger Status
Is Obama coming to the festival like he came to Butu? LMAO
Yes. So are Beyonce, Queen Elizabeth and the Pope.
Destra is here so often she will qualify for the fast track.
LOOOOOOOOL!!!!
I thought the last government stole the money – where is the VIP getting all of this money to:
– hire useless bodyguards
– hire a useless jack of all trades
– quietly hire a ton of not cheap cronies as consultants
– hire a foreign PR team
– buy a new vehicle for the Premier
– take all these tours in the region and the US
– do away with the tender process on so many projects which we were told by THEM that is supposed to ensure we get value for money
– AND NOW bring such big acts to the BVI when we are trying to make OUR festival more local – didn’t they lambast the past administration for the same?
I’m just saying, this is a lot of money that was spent so far and I thought they said we were broke.
When did bringing tourists to the BVI become a bad thing? Do people stay home and think up ways to spin good things into bad ones so they can blame the government?
@Money x4
evident truth is, the NDP government left the territory in excellent and sound finacial standings/footings.
If it was not so, the world would’ve known and keep knowing about it.
So where is Spice?
Every local artist need to be highlighted during this celebration. It is necessary for their promotion and improvement. What we do here is stifle our own while spending mega bucks to promote those who have already made it on the regional and international scene. We are effectively keeping our country down. How do we promote tourism when we stifle local entertainment.
While i agree that local talent should be the focal point of emancipation festival, I wish to point out that the festival is one of the key earners of foreign exchange. Big names attract more people. They are needed to get people to come. There must be a way to balance the local talent with the international. I think the organisers are doing that. they are pairing local entertainers on the stage with the international. It is up to the locals when given the opportunity to rise to the occasion and perform well so that their appeal can be broadened. I think that there could be better marketing of the local talent on the promotional flyers and articles. This article focuses on the international and mentions the locals. Perhaps the organisers or reporters can stress “Acts” on a whole and show pictures of both local and international.
LOCALS GETTING WHAT THE DUCK GEH AGAIN
We ain’t tired exporting money from this country? What do these artist have to do with our so called Emancipation from slavery and Virgin Islands Culture? I consider this a waste of time and money. Oh yes, Destra again…….?
Great lineup!!
Some comments above from people talking about attracting tourist with international artistes, but most tourists that come to the BVI (i.e. white, middle aged, wealthy Americans) are unlikely to be Popcaan fans. Absolutely nothing wrong about promoting the Festival for local people to enjoy (in fact it should be entirely focused on what local people will enjoy because it is their forefather’s Emancipation we remember) but let’s not pretend that Debby from Dallas and Karl from Kansas are going to book a trip to Road Town to attend this because they really arent going to
No, they aren’t but there are plenty of people from the USVI who will. In fact it’s a good that they’re trying to attract a demographic that ISN’T the typical one.
Its so expensive to travel between USVI though, by the time you paid the fare, the taxes, taxis and hotel, you could easily spend $500 on one night. Not sure how many people from the big island will want to spend that: they could got to Miami or Fort Lauderdale for less.
Oh so you’re an expert in tourism now?
STRUPE PEOPLE MAKE STRUPE COMMENTS
What does Destra offer the Festival and the BVI By these frequent /constant performances annually. What are the benefits?
Will the VIP fast track belongers for Destra ???? She has been coming here for 15 straight years
I thought we were “supposed” to be saving money… I thought we were “supposed” to be focussing more on “our” culture. I thought we were “supposed” to be doing better!
I guess we’ll hear that there was no way that we could have organized such big names at such short notice, seeing the VIP was elected in February and these artists were contractually done from 2018.
When you know better… DO better!!! didn’t we already have a wet fette in Aug 2017??? Who don’t hear does feel
Well, I know that here in the USVI, the talk is about the music line in the BVI for festival..
So, Congrats to all those who have contributed to the line up of these Big Shots!!
Stop pretending to be from the USVI when you are a local blogger
Supporting locals is easy to say but not even the locals coming out to village every night to hear Showtime, Vibe, OMG and whoever else and that’s just a fact. You might as well cancel festival if that is even considered as an option because the booth owners will suffer and Patrons will find another spot to spend their money.
Bring back koffee,big singer.
I was born and raised here and im not ashamed to say I feel as tho ppl here have no sense….Yes I agree the wack of money spending on these artist anually is ridiculous but hear me out….They bring in Intl artist, ayo complain…they use local bands and artist, ayo dont support village on the “local” nites….What do u ppl want? I have a suggestion… No festival and let the Govt find areas to use the money to Build the country back…. We will forever be pulling n tugging and keeping our own selves behind country wise due to ignorance…
Over have the ppl bvi ain’t from here.There for they don’t support the local acts.
After the success with Buju this is a great follow up to keep generating money. As usual, the typical STRUPES MAKE STRUPE COMMENT. LEARN ABOUT THE ECONOMY STRUPES. YOU HAVE TO INVEST MONEY TO MAKE MONEY. SURE YOU HAVE A STRUPE IDEA YOU THINK IS GENIUS. LET PEOPLE DO THEIR JOBS BEFORE STRUPE NAYSAYING.
SMH YOU LOT DONT DESERVE WHAT YOU HAVE BECAUSE YOU DO NOTHING FOR BVI BUT COMPLAIN
Local acts attract locals. International acts draw crowds from much further and they need rooms, food, taxis, and lots of other thing. They generate money.
Only problem I see as usual is STRUPE THINKING