ASPIRE Flex Week was launched in style in front of a massive crowd at Sugar Man’s Beach, Portmore, St Catherine on Sunday night.

“Our theme for this year’s staging is celebrating dancehall culture,” Andrew ‘French’ Wright, event organiser, told the Jamaica Observer.

Flex Week is scheduled to run from August 5 to 9 at venues in Kingston and Portmore in St Catherine.

The launch offered a peek into what patrons could expect from the five-party event. The venue filled to near capacity by late evening, as the roster of DJs including ZJ Liquid, ZJ Ice, Hyperactive, and the always popular Tony Matterhorn ran through their playlists to keep patrons dancing as many drank with wild abandon.

Those who could, kept track of the festivities from one of the two VIP areas, the first, high above the stage and the second, an island in the Luc Belaire Lounge in the centre of the action.

In keeping with the theme and the format for the Flex Week of parties, the juggling was eventually replaced by live performances from Tiana and I-Octane. Both were well received by the audience.

Now in its third year, Flex Week has been pared down from 10 to five parties to allow the organisers to focus on the premium features as it expects them to appeal to the young professional who prefers to stay in the Corporate Area and St Catherine and its confines for the upcoming Independence holidays.

The five-day series starts with Image at the Boardwalk Beach in Portmore, on August 5; Portmore’s Sugar Man’s Beach hosts Chug It on August 6; Juice Theory is scheduled for August 7 at White Bones in Kingston; and Boardwalk Beach in Portmore is the venue for Levels on August 8. The series culminates with Frenchbook Live at Fort Clarence Beach in Portmore on Sunday, August 9.

— Rory Daley