Rock City and Arita to entertain
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE BOOZIE’S Bar on the Frigate Bay Strip was the venue used on Friday night (Jun. 10) by organisers of the St. Kitts Music Festival to announce the final acts for this year’s event.
The Committee announced that two of the region’s finest performers, Arita Edmund and Rock City, were the final addition to the line-up.
R. City, which hails from St. Thomas in the United States Virgin Island, is popularly known for their hit song ‘Locked Away’; a song that is regularly played on the local airwaves.
A model by profession, the Tobagonian Edmund listed singing as one of her hobbies and is famous for a number of tunes such as ‘Good Man’ and ‘Promise’.
At this time of the year, the festival competes with another important regional event and the selection process for artistes was carried out using a three-prong approach, according to Jonel Powell, who sits on the Organising Committee for the event,
“We compete every year with the BET Awards which is around the same weekend as our festival. So these are some of the factors that we have to go through. We look at who is available, who we can get and who we can afford, ultimately who is going to bring people through the gate? What combination is going to produce that concert for the three nights that would bring people in and really make people enjoy it.”
Over the years, the Music Festival Committee has brought a number of internationally and regionally renowned artistes to perform at the event, including, Lionel Richie, Bryan McKnight, Machel Montano and Arturo Tappin.
The Committee had withheld the names of the final performers for several weeks after the release of other top entertainers, including ‘50 Cent’, Morgan Heritage, Damian Marley and Tarrus Riley.
Powell confessed that he was among those critics who in previous years voiced their opinion on the length of time it would take to announce the entire list of artistes for the event, but after serving on the Committee he, now has a better understanding of how difficult it is in soliciting the services of artiste during a busy calendar.
“It's not an easy job! I use to be one of those critics and being on the Committee last year and now heading into this year, I understand…I understand what is happening. We had some difficulties negotiating with people and they were hemming and hawing that we are competing with the BET Awards. Some were hedging would I be called up to the BET Awards and some thought they were going to be nominated for awards, and so they couldn’t come.”
The Black Entertainment Awards will be held on June 26, one day after the Music Festival is completed.
St. Kitts Music Festival is celebrating 20 years and the organisers have planned a number of events leading to the June 23-25 event that would be stage at the Warner Park Football Stadium.
