How Them Fi Deal With The Gully Gad So?
This past Memorial Day Weekend the Best Of The Best music festival put on their 11th annual stage show at Miami’s Bayfront Park. Just like every year the show kicked of in the early afternoon and went on until midnight presenting many of “the best of the best” acts in the reggae and dancehall fraternity. Over they years BOTB has brought some amazing musical moments. However this year’s show ended on a rather sour note. When midnight rolled around without Mavado—the show’s headliner—setting foot on stage to perform. Acts billed for this year’s show included the likes of Jahmiel, Spice, Konshens, Aidonia and Christopher Martin—not to mention veteran acts like Barrington Levy, Mad Cobra, Josey Wales and Brigadier Jerry. However the Gully Gad’s non-performance was a major disappointment to say the least. During the final hour of the show, MC and promoter Jabba paced the stage as Mavado’s band tried to set up as the final moments ticked down. Then at just a few minutes to midnight he called Mavado to the stage, then after a few moments returned to the stage to announce that due to Miami Police and curfew regulations Mavado would be unable to perform. Confused?! Most of the thousands of patrons in the park were definitely unhappy. (One eyewitness spotted a heated argument going down backstage after the unpopular announcement.) Everybody including artists, promoters, and fans and patrons (who paid as much as $170 for VIP tickets) wasted no time taking to social media to vent their frustrations. Team Boomshots was in the park too. Here’s how the drama unfolded. More After The Jump…
Everything seemed to be going well…
Dexta Daps Worked A Pretty Long Set…
Then the promoters sent up some Bahamian dance crew to kill time during band change. This did not go over particularly well—especially when the news broke that Mavado would not by able to touch the stage. Minutes after the show Mavado deleted his BOTB promo pic on his IG and posted a pic of himself looking disappointed paired with words of frustrations aimed at BOTB management for letting his fans down.
That post set off a tirade of comments from dancehall fans which went into the early hours of the morning continuing into Monday and Tuesday of this week.
Meanwhile BOTB stuck with a somewhat tone-deaf “business as usual” approach, posting a flyer for their after party on IG that offered patrons no further explanation for the night’s disappointment. This did not go over well.
With BOTB missing in action people’s emotions were set into a frenzy. People took to Mavado’s IG which was collecting comments by the second to air their frustraions and disappoinment on not being able to see him perform.
Amongst the disappointment and Gully Gad fans support there were mixed feelings on his attendance leading to disbelief on whether he was actually there in the first place as the pic he posted showed no signs of him at the park
With no acknoledgement from the show still or word of any type of compensation others went on to share their past experiences with the show itself, while some beleived they had been taken advantage of others pleged their boycott plans for the future
The following day veteran promoter and MC Jabba did take to IG in an attempt to clarify the situation to both fans and artists alike: with the following statement:
Unfortunately it seemed like the damage had been done and fans were not in the mood to let this one go and the exchanges continued.
two days later BOTB posted a second official explaination on their IG
There has been no word from Mavado on this since his last post on the matter. Better luck next year.
