The annual Ghetto Splash event is set to unfold virtually on

December 15.

Event organiser Patrick Roberts said the show must go on despite

the coronavirus pandemic, and has confirmed acts Tommy Lee Sparta, Beenie Man,

Shaggy, Jahmiel, Quada and D’yani.

Roberts added that Shaggy has been helping to procure sponsorship,

a boost for the show which has been struggling to source funding over the

years. He believes the event’s name is posing a threat to this effort.

“I think the name Ghetto Splash is having an impact on how we

get sponsors because I think most of these companies saying, ‘Oh, Ghetto

Splash, probably it’s a mediocre thing’,” he said during a recent OnStage interview. “Most of the

persons who watch the show can understand that Ghetto Splash is no different

from any other ‘Splash’… Production wise, it’s of the highest of quality… The

only difference between a (Reggae) Sunsplash or a (Reggae) Sumfest or a Jazz

and Blues or any of these shows, (is that) one is free, but you get the same

production.”

He is hoping to get a telecommunications network on board. FLOW

sponsored the virtual ‘A Taste of Sumfest’ in July and the recently-held Reggae

Sunsplash.

Ghetto Splash was first staged in 1989 in Craig Town, Kingston, as

a give-back initiative spearheaded by Roberts’ Shocking Vibes Production

Company. It moved to the National Heroes’ Park in 1996 where it welcomed 50,000

patrons. Roberts brought the event to its current Waterhouse base in 2012, as a

councillor for the Molynes Gardens division of the Kingston and St Andrew

Corporation.