14 Dutty Fridaze - Popular dance goes islandwide

Scene from Dutty Fridaze. held at Fletchers Land square on Saturday morning. - nathaniel stewart

The weekly Dutty Fridaze party is set to expand its boundaries even further, as promoter Wayne Bartley aka '2 Gran' says, in addition to having gone global, he wants to stage the event in the 14 parishes in Jamaica.

"To how it gone global an everybody a talk bout it an di DVD gone abroad, wi start fi tek it on a broader basis, because wi keep it all over the Caribbean, England, Canada and the U.S. But what wi plan to do now is to take it to the 14 parishes in Jamaica. Last month, we started off in Portland, and our next Dutty Fridaze on the road will be in St. Thomas," 2 Gran said.

The St. Thomas leg of Dutty Fridaze is scheduled to be held on May 23, Labour Day and then in Brown's Town, St. Ann on June 6.

According to 2 Gran, persons everywhere are already looking forward to the event being staged in their neck of the woods.

"When wi guh to these places and tell them that we want to bring Dutty Fridaze in their area, everybody is excited and willing to corporate, because dem use to it from cable and DVDs and even on our website. There is also a new website, www.duttyfridazereggae.com, where anybody who want information on Dutty Fridaze can log on there," 2 Gran said.

REMAINING OPTIMISTIC

In taking a closer look home at the event's weekly Fletcher's Land location, 2 Gran says they remain optimistic that his weekly street dance will not be severely harmed by the new 2 a.m. stipulation by the police.

According to 2 Gran, "the lock off time is the same thing, 2 a.m., because is something that goes for all the dances, even though some a di dance dem wi get wey. But tru we have our ting every Friday, we haffi adhere to the rules."

The change in cut off time, 2 Gran says, has left some patrons finding it difficult to adjust.

"First time wi kick off like 3, 4 a.m. an wi guh all till 7-8 a.m. But this whole new time code for the dances an the night life thing started about three weeks ago, an when it did just start off, things moved really slow," 2 Gran said.


He continued, "There were people who were still coming in all three, four o' clock an dem a complain an a sey wah, Dutty Fridaze lock off already. Because when wi talk fi di first, nobody nah too tek wi serious, but after couple weeks, most people start fi bruk inna di vibes."

The promoter said what they had to do was to "start some early vibes thing, some games, Karaoke an dem likkle ting deh fi start di party off early."


However, 2 Gran says he is in no more argument with the law as he sees where the early cut off time could be beneficial to him.

"I think the time thing will work out for me in the long run, because people who nuh normally come a Dutty Fridaze an want to come, like students from UTech and these places, always say the time thing too late fi dem, and then yuh have some people a sey, bwoy mi nah come a Dutty Fridaze, cause a really Dutty Saturday dat," he said.

So 2 Gran says he is urging patrons to continue to support the event, "jus come out early and cooperate with the law. A di regular hardcore juggling and di regular vibes, a jus sey wi haffi do wi ting early. An mi waan big up the Central Police General Office and the patrol teams, because dem police deh work wid di Friday ting, dem nuh try fight 'gainst it."