MONTEGO BAY, St James – Small business operators plying their trade during the two final nights of Reggae Sumfest — on the grounds of the Catherine Hall Entertainment Centre in Montego Bay — have expressed gratitude for the return of the music festival after a two-year hiatus due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Friday, the penultimate night of the event, saw a bumper crowd at the venue despite a heavy downpour before the start of the show.

On Saturday night the Jamaica Observer West team caught up with popular Montego Bay coconut water vendor Garth Sinclair, affectionately called Necktie Jelly Man, who described sales at the festival put on by the Joe Bogdanovich-headed Downsound Entertainment as excellent.

“This year is gorgeous, this year is wonderful, me like this year because is two, three years we don’t get any Sumfest; so me naw complain, it good. Big up the whole Montego Bay,” Sinclair said.

A vendor, selling horns and flags, who gave his name only as Bling Bling, welcomed the business opportunities accompanying the return of Reggae Sumfest.

“It’s going pretty good. A 100 per cent! I have been doing this at Sumfest for over 15 years. This year is one of the best years. People came out like sand last [Friday] night. They came out,” the elated vendor argued.

His colleague, Dennis Marks, chimed in: “We did kind of inna lockdown for how long but we glad feh the break. So we give thumbs up for that. Me glad feh weh things deh yah now,” said the vendor who was seen selling horns, chewing gum, phone cards among other items.

For Sonia Bloomfield, who journeyed from Kingston to peddle her wares, Friday night, which saw the mostly younger generation, was understandably slower than Saturday night.

“Last night [Friday] it was so slow. Tonight it is not so bad. I am selling chairs and horns,” she said.

“I have been coming for more than six, seven years and this was the slowest I have seen it. But I guess it is because of the COVID because it is just coming back but we hope for the best.”

Culture and Entertainment Minister Olivia ”Babsy” Grange, who stated that having missed Friday night’s performances, she could not afford to miss Saturday night’s staging of the stellar reggae festival.

“I would say that Jamaicans are happy for a chance to just enjoy themselves…we are happy to come together as a people and enjoy wonderful reggae music,” Grange said.

“I would say that the people were waiting to exhale and Sumfest is here and we are happy for it. Last night we had a bumper crowd and in spite of a little rain, the artistes performed great and it was just wonderful,” she added.