T.O.K’s BAY-C PLANS TO MAKE MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS TO NEXT YEAR’S “BLUE MOUNTAIN MUSIC FESTIVAL!”

By Curtis Campbell—

Member of T.O.K. band and organiser of last month’s Blue Mountain Music Festival, Bay-C, is already looking forward to tomorrow.

According to the artist, the festival will only get better as time progresses.

“I am overwhelmed and humbled by the support. It was a concept I had in my dream, and to see so many persons buy into it and show their support, I’m very pleased,” Bay-C told The Gleaner.

The artist, producer, and now promoter revealed that he spent a lot of time in the mountains. He also said that several of his records had been born out of his connection with the ‘musical spirits’ of the Blue Mountains.

HIDDEN TREASURE

“I live up in these mountains and I have produced a few tracks up here. The first song I produced up here was Shaka Zulu Pickney with Tarrus Riley, and from the way that track moved the conscious world, I realised that there is a spirit up here for hearts, whether you’re doing music, painting, or whatever. I have film-makers who come up here with me and just get inspired for movies. I knew that I wanted something up here and I met up with the managers of the park and they told me they would meet me half-way, and that’s how I came up with the Blue Mountainmusic festival,” he said.

The Blue Mountains

The reggae-dancehall artist said he first went to the Blue Mountains at age 10 along with his mother, father, and siblings and believes Jamaicans should spend more time enjoying and celebrating aspects of the island’s natural attractions.

“The hills nice, man! I never even know seh these things deh a Jamaica until my parents took me here. I do this because it brings joy to people. There is something special about the hills and I just felt that I needed to share it. The thing is more tourists and visitors are aware of it and are more appreciative of it than us Jamaicans. So I just felt that as an artist, if I have the opportunity to share it with my fellow Jamaicans, then I should,” he said.

While the event was attended by several tourists and locals, Bay-C admitted that for next year’s staging, there are several things he would do differently.

“It’s a learning process. For next year, we will change the position of the stage so that persons can see it easier, and we definitely need more buses. The roads are small up this side, so we encouraged people to park at Jamaica College and use the transport we provided. A lot of people still drove up. We are perfectionists and it’s the first year. However, some persons told us they liked the production, so we are not beating ourselves too much though we have our modifications to make,” he said.

lengthy band changes

T.O.K.

Another issue that Bay-C intends to tackle in order to execute and even better Blue Mountain Music Festival is the problem of lengthy band changes.

Early into the event, things ran smoothly, with up-and-coming acts using one backing band. However, as the established reggae acts began to perform their sets using their own bands, the tight schedule went out the window.

Bay-C is already brainstorming methods to fix the problem.

“In Europe, there are a lot of successful festivals and they have 10 bands and each band does their band change and it runs smoothly. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. In Jamaica, we need to utilise digital boards so that the settings can be saved for each band. Another thing is to have more than one stage, a sort of rotating stage. We can learn from the techniques of others and see what we can do,” Bay-C said.

Chronixx

The festival saw performances from Omari, Keida, Chronixx, Third World, Kabaka Pyramid, Jah9, Ity and Fancy Cat, Raging Fyah band, and Tanya Stephens, among others.

Potential patrons for next year’s staging are also encouraged to consider camping as an option for the two-day festival.