THE organisers of the just-concluded music festival Soul in the Sun, held at The Aqueduct in Montego Bay, are already looking towards next year’s staging.

Executive producer Junior Taylor says the festival’s post-mortem will focus on how to get more people through the gates. Patronage, especially on the opening night, fell way below the ten thousand the organisers had anticipated.

As part of the thrust to get more people in the venue, the Soul in the Sun team is dedicating the months closer to the festival to the marketing efforts here in Jamaica and overseas.

“Part of the decision to put the show on at this time of the year had to do with the lull in tourism, as a result we want it to be out, certainly overseas by May, so that people have a clear five months to plan and book. So the intention is to get the artistes out of the way in the first two to three months of the year and then launch a marketing campaign overseas that will see heavy entrenching in the market for those three months and then focus on Jamaica from August,” explained Taylor.

With the inaugural staging out of the way, Taylor’s thoughts will now focus on the 2015 event.

Along with his team, Taylor is looking to commence discussions with artistes at the start of next year.

“Keith Sweat has already signed on verbally. We haven’t penned any final agreement, but he is already conceptualising his Friday night, because it’s now his Friday night. He mentioned some names to me, so he’s going to do his homework, and by early January we’ll start to talk and make some decisions,” said Taylor.

Among the acts on the executive producer’s bucket list are Al B Sure!, Christopher Williams, K-Ci and JoJo, Teddy Riley, James Ingram, Stephanie Mills and Deniece Williams.