Tickets for Buju Jan 16 concert going fast

World-wide fan base expected to converge on Miami for Buju concert

BY KARYL WALKER Online news editor walkerk@jamaicaobserver.com

Sunday, January 09, 2011

TICKETS for the much-anticipated Before The Dawn concert featuring embattled reggae icon Buju Banton are reportedly selling like hot bread.

The concert is scheduled for next week Sunday at the Bayfront Amphitheatre in downtown Miami, during the Martin Luther King, Jnr holiday weekend.

"The buzz is everywhere. People from all over the world are coming and tickets are almost sold out," Banton's manager, Tracii McGregor, told the Sunday Observer.

The concert will also feature Stephen Marley, Wayne Wonder, Shaggy, Tony Rebel, Gramps Morgan, Sly & Robbie, Freddy McGregor, John Legend, Marcia Griffiths, Beres Hammond, Junior Gong and DJ Khaled.

The artiste was last year granted permission to perform at the concert to raise funds to foot his legal bills. He has also received clearance to attend rehearsal sessions with his 'Til Shiloh band.

It will be Buju Banton's first public appearance since he was released on US$250,000-bond and placed under house arrest. It will be his last before he is retried for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five or more kilogrammes of cocaine and aiding and abetting the possession of a firearm during a drug-trafficking offence.

Banton has maintained his innocence and says he was entrapped by the United States Government.

He was in the Pinellas County jail for 11 months before he was brought to trial in September. A 12-member jury could not arrive at a unanimous verdict and a mistrial was declared.

During his remand, his album Before The Dawn, was nominated in the best Reggae album category of the Grammy Awards.

Last week, news broke that US prosecutor James Preston secured a new grand jury indictment late last year, which listed three counts of cocaine-related charges against the reggae artiste, whose real name is Mark Anthony Myrie.

But Banton's legal team, led by attorney David Markus, is fighting the new indictment on the grounds that it is not permissible for new charges to be brought on old information and that the weapon charge was a violation of the Fifth Amendment.

Both the prosecution and the defence are eagerly awaiting a court ruling on the matter.

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Tickets for Buju Jan 16 concert going fast