SHOWERS OF BLESSING

Saterday was supposed to be a day of resting so we mostly did some reading. I brought about 391 books, all on my Kindle so no hastle. What better place to be to reading The History of Seven Killings by Marlon James. The problem with Saterday was the weather though. Heavy wind and rain, a fallout of the terrible winter storm in the US. It felt like some of the coldest temperatures I had ever experienced in Jamaica. Very impressive to see the elements of nature doing their thing from my room with an ocean view. From earlier editions, we knew that Ninja man show supposed to start early.

Stage shows can start early or they can start late, as I explain in my on How to Party section of Reggaetourist.com. So this one supposed to be an early one because of the huge amount of artists on the bill. Last year the first artist kicked off at 10 p.m. and from then on it was a coming and going of big artists so not really an early upcoming artists segment. The smart decision seemed to go to the show quite early to not miss out on the action. But then there is the weather argument which says that Jamaicans will not come out in the rain. And it was still raining quite heavily by 8 p.m. So maybe the show got cancelled? We decided to head out after dinner and have a look. By 10 p.m. it was still drizzling and there was a small crowd of patrons and vendors gathered outside of the venue, Turtle River Park.

We drank a couple of beers and met up with some people. People weren’t really going inside so we didn’t either. What we could hear clearly though: no artists playing, only sound system. We finally decided to have a look inside the venue at midnight. This was when a first slew of unknown and up and coming artists got their stage time. At 2 p.m. the sound system started to play again. By then we knew what was going to happen. Outside the crowd wanting to get in started to get bigger. It had stopped raining after midnight so Jamaican party goers were finally ready to come out and to the show. This meant that the promotors were stalling startime untill most of the people were inside. And this means that the bulk of the action, the best performers scheduled, start performing at 3.30 p.m. or so. But by then, having been in the rain and cold for too long, we decided we wouldnt’ be making it after all and we decided to go home. Not because we were drinking or smoking too much or anything, just pure fatigue and the last of that jetleg slumbering. Well, not really ‘according to plan’ as I noticed yesterday but then again, to hell with plans when you're on your holiday. We had a good time still, hanging around outside and reasoning with locals. Had a great piece of juicy Jerked chicken. Caught some of the early action on stage. It's all good.