MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Popular dancehall artiste Stalk Ashley will return to her home parish for the highly-anticipated Color Splash with event promoter Adion Peart promising patrons that the show will capture a spectacular staging following a week of challenges with the Manchester Municipal Corporation.

Peart, more popularly known as Diamond Finger, told the Jamaica Observer’s
Splash on Tuesday that the Mile Gully native is returning to the Color Splash stage.

“Five years ago I had her on stage, so this is her second appearance, so this is a return,” he said while on a site visit for the Nashville location of the event slated for Christmas Eve.

“We have Skippa and we will be having two surprise artiste on the night. Skippa is a young artiste that is trending. The young people gravitate to him,” Peart said while explaining that he conducted a poll to allow Color Splash fans to select one of the artistes for the show.

“The poll was done on the social media page for Color Splash, and what happened is that we normally do that to select the artiste who patrons want; that was done, and he came up ahead of artiste like Jamal, Pablo YG and Intence,” added Peart.

The promoter said he has been given approval by Manchester Municipal Corporation to stage his event Color Splash on Christmas Eve following a week of widespread debate and a clash with the council.

This after he moved the event venue from Main Street in Mandeville to Nashville, a few hundred metres closer to the town centre, with the support of the renowned Lyn family.

“The issue that we had before, we got it sorted out now. We had some discussions over the weekend and we came to a solution and we don’t have much time, so I decided to move the location to Nashville, right beside the bus park,” he said on Tuesday.

The Lyns, who operate a funeral home, agreed to allow Peart to use several acres of land at Nashville.

“I think this event will have a huge turnout. This will be our tenth anniversary. We keep it three times a year, so this is our 28th staging. This is a big thing for the town of Mandeville, and the parish in general. Everybody benefits from it — the local agencies, the vendors and the citizens,” he said.

Peart continued: “Color Splash originated back in 2013/2014, so we were thinking about having water, colour, foam, and let everybody just have fun. Just a different vibe from a regular dancehall event. We have had up to 5,000 patrons. We can hold up to 7,000 patrons here.”

He explained that the December 24 event’s theme will no doubt bring out be eye-catching fashion.

“We have different themes each time. This staging is about the see-through edition, where the ladies will come and wear their favourite outfit,” he said.

Peart said he plans to expand the event beyond Manchester and Jamaica.

“I have gotten a lot of requests and, yes, 2025 we will definitely spread our wings. We will definitely go to Negril with one and Kingston. We are looking at St Ann too. I also plan to bring it overseas to the US. At least one state will be good. I think I can explore the overseas market now,” he told Splash.