TODAY’S staging of the Grand Gala at the National Stadium in Kingston promises to be a seamless celebration of Jamaica’s 62nd anniversary as an independent nation, with a special focus on cultural icon Louise Bennett-Coverley, popularly known as Miss Lou.

“There is a special theme this year around Miss Lou. Whilst watching the gala you are going to get a feel of Miss Lou. A lot of the presentations and mass pieces will incorporate some aspect of Miss Lou’s contribution to Jamaica as a cultural icon,” said Kirk Buchanan, a key member of the production and broadcast coordination team working with Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) to execute the Grand Gala.

Women in Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), meanwhile, will put their various talents on show as they celebrate 75 years since the first batch of females were enlisted in the constabulary.

“This year, four awards will be given out to Bounty Killer, Beenie Man, Third World band; and a special award will go to Pat Chin who is the head of VP Records. They are massive, so she is being recognised by the Government because VP Records has contributed to the musical industry for as long as it has been around,” said Buchanan.

“Each of the artistes [after receiving awards] will give a performance on stage, so Third World will perform as a band and Bounty and Beenie will also perform,” he said.

“In previous years we would have like 300 drones for the drone show but this year we are having over 700 drones. The drone show is one of the highlights — which should be a visually entertaining activity,” he added.

The Chinese, who are also celebrating 170 years since their arrival in Jamaica, have sponsored fireworks for the show.

The gates at the National Stadium should open from as early as 1:00 pm and the gala will kick start at 5:00 pm, with the arrival of local dignitaries including Governor General Sir Patrick Allen; Prime Minister Andrew Holness; Mark Golding, leader of the Opposition; and Olivia “Babsy” Grange, the minister of culture, gender, entertainment and sport.

“Tickets are finished, and we hope that the people who got tickets will actually turn up. There will be a viewing party by the Independence Village to accommodate for any spillover, and there will be an LED screen inside.

“In terms of special guests, we are expecting all the who’s who. To my knowledge there has not been any announcement of any formal foreign guests, as far as I know. The show should flow seamlessly to the end; we expect to finish by 9:30 pm. We are trying to keep things nice and tight, and not dragged out,“ Buchanan told the Jamaica Observer.

“Coming out of rehearsals on Sunday we are pretty much comfortable with where things are at; there is a solid show in place. As per every year, we are just trying to control the timing to ensure that the show doesn’t overrun. What we have now is a well-coordinated programme so far.

“Most of the sound checks so far have been pretty good. One of the things that plague us sometimes with the Grand Gala is usually audio problems — which are not major but sometimes we have some unnecessary spiking, so this year we are trying to get that out of the way.

“You may notice that speakers are placed right around the track. We have most of our LED screens in place already, so we kind of like where we are technically, so far. We have done the acid test, so with that out of the way we can safely say, ‘Come, Jamaica. We will have a good Grand Gala that is technically sound and, hopefully, incident-free,” Buchanan said in a briefing at the National Stadium.