KINGSTON, Jamaica — As its name implies, the rural district of Farm in south Manchester is an agricultural community. When not tilling the soil, residents love to party.

They will do just that on Saturday at Wet Wet Pool Party and Fun Day at Farm Community Centre. Now in its seventh year, the event is the brainchild of Dwight Forbes, who operates the Nite Life sound system.

Forbes, who lives in New York, is from Farm. During an interview with the OBSERVER ONLINE, he spoke about the importance of sharing with his community.

“What it means is giving back to Manchester. It’s just a great vibes with people from my home community, Farm district, and the other communities in south Manchester,” he said. “They come together to have some clean fun and it’s a joy for me to be able to do this for them.”

Forbes, who is in his late 30s, started Nite Life in 2000. He was mentored by his uncle, a businessman who owned a small sound system in Farm.

Nite Life has two outlets. Forbes leads the New York ‘set’, which plays throughout the boroughs of Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens where there is a massive Jamaican and West Indian population.

They also gig regularly in Connecticut and New Jersey. According to Forbes, in Jamaica, Nite Life has built a reputation in the countryside.

“We mostly play in central Jamaica but we play often right across the island, from Portland, St Thomas, Western Jamaica. We can fit any occasion,” he said.

Manchester has a solid sound system history. In the 1980s, budding roots artistes like Garnet Silk and Tony Rebel fine-tuned their skills on homegrown ‘sounds’ Destiny Outanational and Conquering Lion.

Nite Life represents the new generation of sounds systems in the parish. Forbes boasts that they can hold their own against more established counterparts.

“We have a three-column sound that packs a big punch in terms of being a real heavyweight sound. But we play with a lot of quality,” he said.

Howard Campbell