AN­GE­LO JE­DIDI­AH

Re­porter

an­ge­lo.je­didi­ah@guardian.co.tt

Even though it is known for its turquoise, clear wa­ters and post­card-per­fect views, earn­ing it the ti­tle of the “gem of the Caribbean,” Bar­ba­dos re­cent­ly trad­ed its peace­ful sound for some­thing a bit more up­beat.

On April 24, Bar­ba­dos Reg­gae Week­end kicked off, show­cas­ing the coun­try’s love af­fair with the Caribbean mu­sic genre.

Over 20,000 reg­gae lovers packed Kens­ing­ton Oval in Bridgetown over the three-night event, prov­ing that while reg­gae was born in Ja­maica, its soul is tru­ly uni­ver­sal.

Fri­day night was all about reg­gae leg­ends and stars, from Sis­ter Nan­cy to Bar­ring­ton Levy, Nor­ris Man and JC Lodge.

On Sat­ur­day, the en­er­gy shift­ed to a dance­hall show­down fea­tur­ing stars like Caple­ton and the “un­ruly boss” him­self – Pop­caan. Ris­ing Ba­jan dance­hall artiste Mas­taa T al­so per­formed, en­er­gis­ing the crowds with his 2026 hit Tea Tea.

Bar­ba­dos Pres­i­dent Jef­frey Bostic and Prime Min­is­ter Mia Mot­t­ley were among the gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials in at­ten­dance across all three shows.

But the week­end did not go with­out a few sour notes. Ja­maican dance­hall artiste Tris­ten “450” Es­coffery sparked a firestorm af­ter pulling out of Sat­ur­day’s line-up, cit­ing a dis­pute with pro­mot­ers.

The artiste lat­er apol­o­gised for what he de­scribed as a mis­un­der­stand­ing on his end and even­tu­al­ly per­formed on Sun­day in­stead.

For fans who bought Sat­ur­day tick­ets to see him per­form hits like Wild n Rich, this ad­just­ment was a tough pill to swal­low, es­pe­cial­ly when com­bined with oth­er chal­lenges pa­trons said they faced, in­clud­ing late starts and de­layed per­for­mances each night.

“In terms of the pro­duc­tion, maybe I wouldn’t say that there were chal­lenges on that end. Prob­a­bly just mak­ing sure that the artists ar­rive to pro­duce, to be able to per­form on the night that they were sup­posed to per­form,” Bar­ba­dos Reg­gae Week­end spon­sor­ship man­ag­er Michelle Straughn told Guardian Me­dia.

“But I’m sure that at the end of the night, there’s per­sons not go­ing to re­mem­ber that they were stand­ing out­side and feel­ing up­set be­cause they had to stand a lit­tle while to get in­to the venue. They will go away sat­is­fied.”

But by the time Amer­i­can singer Fan­ta­sia Bar­ri­no graced the stage, any frus­tra­tions seem­ing­ly van­ished as she per­formed some of her most fa­mous sin­gles.

In the end, it was the mu­sic that won, prov­ing that de­spite some is­sues, Caribbean mu­sic and en­ter­tain­ment con­tin­ue to unite us all.