The Government is to declare February Reggae Month, minister of information, culture, youth and sports, Olivia 'Babsy' Grange, told guests at the launch of the Reggae Academy Awards last Tuesday at the Hilton Kingston Hotel.

"I really want to say to you that the Government will be announcing, at the highest level, a declaration of February as Reggae Month," Grange said. "And it will be announced and presented in a manner that will impact not only in Jamaica but across the world."

The inaugural staging of the Reggae Academy Awards ceremony, slated for Sunday, February 24, 2008 at the National Indoor Sports Centre in Kingston, is being widely hailed within the local entertainment fraternity as the equivalent of the Grammy Awards.

An initiative of the Recording Industry Association of Jamaica (RIAJam), the gala affair will be the grand finalé to a week-long series of music industry activities. These include a road tour, stopping at six locations around the island - St Thomas, Ocho Rios, Montego Bay, Savanna-la-Mar, Clarendon and Kingston - as well as a number of symposia on the music industry.

The road tour will include public information fora featuring music industry celebrities and business entertainment executives. It will also include performances aimed at generating public interest in voting for the two top awards - 'Most Popular Artiste' and 'Most Popular Song'.

But apart from those events planned by RIAjam, there will also be a host of other activities covering the entire month of February, highlights of which will include a three-day reggae film festival and the Africa Unite concert and documentary.

According to Minister Grange, the film festival is intended to be the foundation of Jamaica's film academy that will archive films for research, screening and education.

".this film festival will run from February 15th to the 17th, and will feature films that have reggae music as the subject, storyline or content and focusing on film as an aspect of Jamaica's music culture," Grange said, adding that the festival will be co-ordinated by journalist/cultural activist Barbara Blake Hannah, who was responsible for co-ordinating Jamaica's first film festival in the 1970s.

"The interesting thing about February of next year," she added, "is that there will be a number of other activities taking place during that month. And I'm encouraging as many organisations, companies and individuals to plan your activities around that month to enhance and to complement the other activities that are now being announced."

She made mention of a special event to be co-hosted by Chris Blackwell and Rita Marley at Strawberry Hill on February 6, the anniversary of the birth of late reggae legend Bob Marley.
Grange also said that the Africa Unite film and concert will be presented by the Bob and Rita Marley Foundation on the eve of the Reggae Academy Awards at James Bond Beach in Oracabessa.

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