DESPITE a low turnout of Floridians due to the threat of Hurricane Dorian, co-organiser of Floatopia Jamaica, Rachelle Thompson still considers the event’s first local staging a success.

“It has been great in terms of the vibe. The vibe is awesome; the vibe is here; the venue is awesome; and it’s a bright sunny day…we didn’t get quite the crowd that we wanted because we had some difficulty with the hurricane that has been circulating the Caribbean and Florida so that caused a lot of patrons to cancel their flights — so there’s that. Other than that, it’s a great vibe,” Thompson told the Jamaica Observer.

The event was held at the Rio Nuevo Beach Estate in St Ann on August 31.

Moving forward, Thompson and her team plans to do better promoting in order to attract a larger crowd at Floatopia Jamaica’s second staging on December 21.

“We’re definitely going to pick up the road, like radio and road promotions, etc. That’s definitely something that we’re going to improve on and step up on ’cause like I said, the first event was really catering to the Miami mass, and they missed their flight because of the hurricane; so next time we’ll definitely incorporate a lot more local promotions,” she said.

The party carried on nonetheless with attendees enjoying an array of musical selections courtesy of deejays Nicco, Chromatic, Tyler Chung, and Crazy Touch.

Masseuse Cheryl Williams told the Observer that the party’s execution was “really brilliant”, while executive assistant Terari Pessaoa had another theory as to why the attendance was underwhelming.

“The promotion was really good, but the venue is too far. I would still come back because the vibe is nice,” she said.

Floatopia, first held in 2014, is a Florida-based party series.

Hurricane Dorian proved quite deadly as it claimed 43 people in The Bahamas recently and caused property damage estimated at US$7 billion.