JUST randomly pick any day of the week and

there is a night-time entertainment package in city Kingston tailored for it. However, since the announcement last Sunday of the month-long State of Emergency, entertainment in Kingston (and St Andrew) has ground to a virtual halt. As expected, postponements have become the order of

the day, or more accurately, the night.

The weekly calendar includes Wet Sundays, Uptown Mondays, Boasy Tuesdays, Weddy Wednesdays, Passa Passa, Happy Thursdays, Hennessey Fridays among others, but this week, nothing took place. Clubs have been shuttered down and the usual long lines of patrons was not seen anywhere as party-goers have been forced to stay at home, in keeping with the edict that residents of Kingston and St Andrew must be off the streets by 6:00 pm.

“It’s just like a ghost town everywhere,” one photographer reported.

Among the first events to be postponed was the much-advertised Mountain Dew Stunt Festival. Scheduled for Labour Day, the event could not be held, as the city was tense and the State of Emergency had been declared the previous day.

Promoter Linvall Gibbons said that while he was disappointed and he has lost money, he is already moving ahead and trying to find the right date to stage the annual family event.

“All the stunt people had flown into the island and we had started setting up at the Police Officers Club, but we just have to accept our losses and wheel and come again,” Gibbons said.

Now in its third year, the May Daze party series has slowly been building a loyal following with its theme nights every Friday in the month of May. This year there have already been four stagings but this week’s event has fallen prey to the state of emergency.

Foodies have also been locked out, albeit temporarily, as the highly-anticipated, prestigious Jamaica Observer Food Awards, scheduled for May 27 on the grounds of Devon House, has been postponed. Creator of the Food Awards and lifestyle editor at the Jamaica Observer, Novia McDonald-Whyte, says a new date for the event will be announced shortly.

Styleweek Jamaica, the event which prides itself as having as its most prominent objective, the positioning of Kingston as a stylish travel destination, should have been held this weekend. However, “the world’s iriest fashion week in the Caribbean’s trendiest island city — Kingston” has fallen prey to the padlocks firmly bolting the city.

According to a release from the organisers, Saint International: “After much consultations and observation of the prevailing political climate, we think it’s prudent to change the date for this year’s staging of Styleweek Jamaica

to July 9-11, 2010.

The main events are The International Men’s Collection at Devon House Friday July 9; International Mecca Of Style at Fort Charles on July 10

Fashionblock at Knutsford Boulevard on July 11.

Pulse, organisers of Caribbean Fashionweek, says the event is on “but, is likely to be pushed back a week, beginning June 15 and ending June 21”.

Other events which have been postponed include the JCDC Regional Festival of Foods – Eastern Showcase scheduled for today at the Chinese Benevolent Centre, Heineken Good Times at the Mas Camp Village tomorrow, Music for Life concert scheduled for tomorrow at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre and the Powerful Women & Men Perform for Charity event, which should have been held on Sunday, June 6.

— Yasmine Peru