MONTEGO BAY — Determined to avoid a repeat of last year’s bottle-throwing fracas that marred Dancehall night, Sumfest organisers have increased the number of security guards for this year’s show and will try to minimise the number of bottles that are allowed onto the compound.

Three hundred security personnel — evenly split between police officers and privately employed security guards — will be on site, according to chairman of Summerfest Productions Ltd, Robert Russell.

“We had a little less than that last year. I can’t remember the exact figures, but we increased the numbers just to ensure that we don’t have a recurrence of any kind of incident,” he told the Observer in an interview yesterday. “This year we’re going to redouble our efforts to ensure that the tight level of security we have been accustomed to over the years is reinforced,” he added.

Last year, the first time ever in the annual reggae show’s long history, a fracas broke out at the Catherine Hall site. It stemmed from a verbal clash between Beenie Man and Bounty Killer and brought the show to a premature end. Organisers had promised, during the post-mortem of the incident, to ensure that drinks are sold in plastic cups at future shows. Yesterday Russell said that while they were committed to minimising the number of bottles allowed at the venue, there was no way to ensure that the site is entirely bottle-free.

“We’ll try to minimise the amount of bottles but we have a problem with that because people bring their own drinks, like champagne and so on,” he said. “But we’re going to be very vigilant with the bottles. It’s unfortunate that we had an incident last year because up to that point in time we had gone nine years without any incident at all.”

Meanwhile, most Montego Bay hotels say their forward bookings indicate that they will be fully booked for the July 21 to 27 Sumfest period, vindicating show organisers’ claims that their reggae show contributes a lot to the island’s tourist industry.

“What it proves is that Sumfest is in fact the catalyst that is filling up these rooms at this time of year. People were doubting whether it was Sumfest because they were saying it could have been Independence but now that we have moved the festival to the 21st of July, it’s definitely not Independence anymore,” Russell argued.

Organisers moved the date up, this year, to avoid competing with the various events usually staged over the Independence holidays. There was some concern over whether the date change would affect the show’s numbers but those fears seem unfounded, at least for now.

The final test will be whether organisers make a profit from this year’s show, something that has eluded them over the years. They have cut one night from the show, in an attempt to increase their profit margin by cutting costs and hopefully retaining or improving upon the turnout.

The show gets under way on July 21 with the Beach Party at Caribbean Beach Park. There is no show the following day, but on July 23 there will be Sound System night at Pier One.

The show then moves to the Catherine Hall site on July 25 for Dancehall night with acts such as Bounty Killer, Elephant Man, Ninja Man and Baby Cham. The July 26th show has been labelled as the Conscious night with a line-up of acts that include Burning Spear, Capleton, Barrington Levy and Abijah.

This year’s show will end with International night on July 27, featuring Ja Rule, Ashanti, Damian “Jr Gong” Marley and Rayvon in performance with Shaggy, Rik Rok, Brian and Tony Gold.

Ticket prices range from $700 for the Beach Party, $500 for Sound System night, $1,000 for Dancehall night and $1,500 for the last two shows.

“This is our 10th anniversary show and we’re just looking forward to the usual support from the people of Montego Bay and ask that everybody just strives to make Sumfest, which is the world’s greatest reggae festival, a huge success this year,” Russell appealed.