Event director of the Portmore Music Fest Steve Billings says he is pleased with the second staging of the event held recently.

Patrons flooded the UDC car park in Portmore, St Catherine, to hear the likes of Bounty Killer, Queen Ifrica and Tommy Lee, among others.

“I am more than pleased. Last staging we had around 3,000 patrons, this time we doubled so we had about 6,000 to 7,000 persons who came out. We ensured that everything was in place, from production to lighting, and all of our efforts were well received. We had Ruff Kut, the best band, we had the best caterers and all of the artistes gave great performances. I can’t think of any negatives about the show,” said Billings.

Part proceeds of the show will be donated to Mothers in Crisis, a self-development training centre for single mothers operating in Portmore. Last year, Mothers In Crisis received 22 industrial machines purchased from proceeds of Portmore Music Fest’s inaugural staging. But this year, organisers pledged to donate 20 per cent of this show’s proceeds.

“Hopefully, we will be able to say how much proceeds will be handed over, as of right now we’re still doing payouts so we are unable to say just yet,” Billings said.

The event hosted a line-up including I-Octane, I Wayne, Wayne Wonder, Mr Easy, Turbulence, Frisco Kid and Shane O.

Billings shared the future adjustments that will be made to the show come next year.

“This year we had some overseas acts like Mr Eazy and Wayne Wonder, so we will be working on getting more of those overseas artistes to come down like Baby Cham. Also this year the line up was expanded, so some performances felt rushed. We will be reducing the line up to about 10 acts to facilitate each person giving a good festival performance around 30-45 minutes. We also want to incorporate more females to strike that gender balance,” he said.

— Sade Gardner