MONTEGO BAY, St James — Reggae Sumfest 2018 wrapped its new-look festival format after a whirlwind eight days of high- energy events, including performances on the main stage for Festival Night 1 and 2 on Friday and Saturday, respectively, at the Catherine Hall Entertainment Centre in Montego Bay.

The festival attracted scores of international and local visitors to Montego Bay for its 26th staging, which started on Sunday, July 15, with the usual beach party dubbed this year as ‘Colourfest’ at the Tropical Bliss Beach.

New additions to the festival included a street dance last week Monday, an all-black party tagged as ‘Blitz’ at Hard Rock Café Montego Bay last week Wednesday, the launch of the Inspire Awards at Iberostar on Thursday, a Reggae Industry Symposium on Friday at the Montego Bay Convention Centre, and ‘Morning Medz’, a breakfast party at Closed Harbour Beach (Dump Up) on Sunday. The traditional All-White last week Tuesday and Sound Clash on Thursday both unfolded at Pier One.

Western Jamaica was the highlight on Festival Night 1, with the final segment labelled as ‘Tribute to Montego Bay’, which had the last three acts to close the show originating from that city.

First up was the fast-rising Rygin King, who is currently riding high on the success of his single Tuff, which is arguably the hottest song of the summer in Jamaica.

He also delivered crowd favourites How Me Grow, Feel Like This and Learn.

Singjay Teejay was up next and gave a good account of himself with songs such as Buss Head, Money Make the World Go Round and Laugh Wid People.

Tommy Lee Sparta brought the curtains down at minutes after 7:00 am with a spirited performance.

Earlier in the night Spice, Popcaan, Aidonia, Govanna, Masicka, I-Octane, Bounty Killer, Agent Sasco and Ding Dong also took to the stage. Festival Night 2 saw crowd- pleasing performances from Maxi Priest, Beres Hammond, Junior Gong, Baby Cham, and Capleton.

Organisers of the festival later hailed the staging as a success, conceding, however, that some areas need to be fixed in order to develop a festival of international standard.

“The numbers this year were similar to last year, and we are pleased with that. We are proud that the experience was classy, thanks to our innovations such as the GraceKennedy Food Court, the Sumfest Mall, which was a hit, as people were able to buy great Jamaican-made items ,” said Josef Bogdanovich, CEO of Downsound Entertainment — producers of the festival.

“Service is still king and we have some work to do to get it. It’s nothing too serious, but it is still critical if we want to have a festival of international standards,” he told the Observer West.