By Claudia Gardner:
Mayor of Lucea Sheridan Samuels, has sent out a terse warning to Dream Entertainment, promoters of Negril’s Dream Weekend party series and the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation (WMC) that any party held across the Hanover Border will be shut down, unless an application is submitted to and approved by the HMC.
Mayor Samuels issued his warning after Councillor Marvel Sewell of the Green Island Division, in which a section of Negril falls, complained to him that there has been a longstanding issue of all Dream Weekend parties being approved, and entertainment licence fees collected, by the WMC, including the Wet N Wild event which is usually held at Kool Runnings Water Park which is in Negril, Hanover, which is outside of the WMC’s jurisdiction.
Dubbed the Capital of Casual, the resort town of Negril straddles both Hanover and Westmoreland.
The exchange between the Mayor, who is also Chairman of the Hanover Municipal Corporation and Sewell, took place July’s Regular Monthly Meeting of the Hanover Municipal Corporation.
“Every year Dream Weekend keep their parties and the amusement funds are turned over to Westmoreland. What are we putting in place to ensure that anything keeping on the Hanover border, we get our fair share of our payment for that event?” Councillor Sewell asked.
When the Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation David Gardner explained to the meeting that over the years “while the amusement license aspect may not have been approved by Hanover” fees were collected from the street vendors who spilled across the Hanover border, Mayor Samuels said he was not satisfied with that arrangement as it was shortchanging his parish.
“I have heard what you have said Mr Gardner, but I don’t know. If the event is held under one umbrella, we would definitely have to get a split on it (amusement fees), as I can tell you that we are not going to allow any function that is permitted in Westmoreland to happen in Hanover. We are not going to allow that this year,” Samuels, who is also Councillor of the Cauldwell Division said.
On June 30, Dream Entertainment, had said in a said in a release that it had submitted an application and plan to the Government to host its flagship Dream Weekend event in Negril between August 5 and August 9 in what its chairman Kamal Bankay described as a “bubble event” approach to ensure safety and compliance.
Dream Weekend’s application had come following Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ announcement, that as of July 1, there would be a phased reopening of the entertainment sector.
But Mayor Samuels, in further making his point, during the meeting said that the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation had already been errant concerning the controversial Mocha Fest which was held in May, and he would not want Hanover to be entangled anything similar to that which would make Hanover vulnerable.
“Westmoreland must know the borders. And if Westmoreland get an application to do a function in Westmoreland, they have to do the function there. If it means that they want to extend over into Hanover, they have to send the application over to us because we are not going to allow them to do their foolishness that have them to have this high amount of COVID cases down there, or to permit any event that is going to rise the COVID cases in Hanover!” ” Samuels declared.
“I don’t know what Westmoreland going on with over there, because si dem have Mocha Fest, which was in Westmoreland – not Hanover. We (HMC) don’t break rules down here and we will not allow them to permit any event within our jurisdiction that will affect anything in Hanover itself,” he added.
During the exchange, the CEO also noted that it had been pointed out to the Entertainment Ministry, which had sent an email to the HMC advising that the Dream weekend application had been received, that Negril spans Westmoreland and Hanover and so they were “going to look into the matter” of the applications.
Mayor Samuels remained adamant that there would be no ‘Dreaming’ on the Hanover side of Negril without the sanction of the HMC and the commanding officer of the Hanover Police Division.
“We are going to be very serious because if Dream is going to have any function at Kool Runnings’ place and they don’t get the amusement license from us and they don’t get the permit from the police in Hanover, that function – they can’t have that function in Hanover,” he said.
As usual, the Mayor could not resist popping some jokes about Dream Weekend and its promoters, as he ended the discussion on a lighthearted note.
“Whomever know dem, if you know anybody connected to dem, let them understand that! Because you remember when our Minister now was the mayor of Kingston? Eh?” he said, referencing Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie’s hands-on enforcement of the Municipal Laws when he served as Mayor of Kingston.
“If they don’t know mi yet, they will know mi on dat day, because I will be leading that charge down there to lock it down, right. So they will know me… if a don’t get fraid,” he quipped, as he and the meeting attendees erupted in laughter.
A few weeks ago, Entertainment Minister Olivia “Babsy” Grange had said that a decision had still not been taken on the Dream Weekend bubble event, as the application was still under review and had to be sanctioned by the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM).
The Minister had also said the application will be put under rigorous scrutiny to ensure that promoters of the event, dubbed “the Caribbean’s largest party experience”, is able to guarantee that the requisite COVID-mitigation measures would be put in place.
Grange had said during an Entertainment Report interview with Television Jamaica’s entertainment journalist Anthony Miller, that it was first necessary “to validate those who say they have been fully vaccinated and validate the COVID tests” and that “once those things are in place and can be done, I don’t see a difficulty”.
The annual Dream Weekend event, comprises a series of day and night parties and with Dancehall music as its core genre, but also includes other music forms such as Rap, Hip Hop and Soca.
Over the years a slew of artistes such as Sizzla, Beenie Man, Bounty Killer, Mavado, Elephant Man, Govana, Aidonia, Shenseea and Ishawna, have performed at the event.
Bankay has stated in a release that the Dream Weekend 2021 bubble event would require that all patrons and staff in attendance be either fully vaccinated or pre-tested, and prove to be negative, for COVID-19 before being allowed to get an event armband.
He had also noted that all hotels and venues for patrons and staff would be on Jamaica’s resilient corridor and that Dream was committed to working with all the State Ministries and agencies to use Dream Weekend 2021 “as a pilot event for a safe re-opening”.
According to him, “the incredible success of the tourism industry’s resilient corridor has shown, day-in-day-out over the past 13 months, to be a perfect example of protocols facilitating the safe reopening of a sector”.
Had also said that because the majority of the patrons attending will need to be tested in order to leave Jamaica, the efficacy of the plans and protocols would be evaluated and can be “replicated or tweaked for future large events”.
