The 25th annual Sumfest, one of Jamaica’s more popular music festivals came to a close late Saturday night. According to reports, the promoters were pleased with the overall event, especially as it was “incident free.”.
Among the outstanding performances at the weeklong festival was that of controversial dancehall artist Alkaline. One report said “Alkaline really took the park by storm…..he has grown so much that he really blew everybody away,”
Another report hailed the performance of eight-time Grammy Award winner, Stephen ‘Ragamuffin’ Marley. The report stated Marley son of the late Reggae icon Bob Marley and Rita Marley, “left an indelible mark” on the closing night of the festival “with an electrifying performance at the Montego Bay Entertainment Centre early this morning.”
The report said the young Marley connected with the enthusiastic audience as soon as he appeared on stage.
His on stage repertoire included hits like “No Cigarette Smoking in My Room”, and “Options.” Marley sent the audience to a feverish pitch when he called on his son, Joe Mercer to sing with him and again when Caple ton also partnered with him on stage.
Other great performances, reported, were by Richie Stephens and the Ska Nation Band; Sean Kingston with his popular hits like “Beautiful Girl”, “Dutty Love”, and “Call 911;” and veteran deejay Mad Cobra.
Sharon Mosely who flew back from Jamaica on Sunday afternoon Iin time to report to her nursing job later described Sumfest as “Bad to the bone, can’t done.” She said the performances were all ‘A’ rated. She said she enjoyed the dance hall sequence best of all. She too hailed the performance. “I was too young to see Bob perform live, but I have seen his videos, and I believe Stephen is not too far behind his old man’s greatness.”
