Patrons enjoying the vibe at an Appleton May Daze Party. - Winston Sill

Permits for parties to be held in the Kingston and St Andrew area will not be granted during the limited state of emergency currently enforced.

While Kingston and St Andrew remain under a limited state of emergency since last week following the recent upsurge of violence, the party community will have to bear the brunt of the state of emergency.

When THE WEEKEND STAR spoke to Derrick 'Cowboy' Knight, head of the Half-Way Tree police, he explained that for his division, no permission for events held after 6 p.m. would be granted.

He said: "The regulations during this time clearly speak to no gatherings until things go back to normal, then persons are to apply 10 days before the event for permits." A month-long state of emergency was called on Sunday, May 23. Last Wednesday, a curfew was also imposed on sections of the Corporate Area.

Knight added: "My advice is to apply to the commissioner of police for permission during this time until the curfew ends in the next three weeks."

Since the unrest in Kingston, a number of events had to be postponed due to the violence and the state of emergency. Events such as Levels, Equilibrium, Good Times, Wet Sundaze, among others were postponed until further notice.

For summer series May Daze, which kicked off on the first Friday of May, at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre, and was scheduled to run for five weeks, last week's edition was postponed and tonight's edition faces the same fate.

Promoter for May Daze Dwayne Harris said: "Basically, due to the state of emergency, the police are not issuing any permits for outdoor events until I believe June 24, when the state of emergency is up. So I don't think they'll be issuing permits and we didn't want to run the risk of having the event without one."

According to Harris, they are hoping to have the final May Daze on June 25 hopefully at its regular venue.

"This will be like the season finale, the last hooray. The whole thing has been unfortunate but a so it go," he said.

Harris explained that the postponement of the fourth and the final edition of the event caused a loss for the series. "Of course there is a loss, we had expenses that we had to pay upfront, certain expenses that we won't recover. It's a five-part series so the good thing is that the promotion will roll over so the advertising cost is not affected. But some places don't do refunds so we'll just have to take that loss and the loss in the profits." he said.

He added: "Hopefully, the momentum is still there and we just haffi go hard for the next couple of weeks 'cause the hardest effect more than the financial one is the vibe. May Daze was like the only place most people went on a Friday night so it killed the momentum but the event has a reputation, so hopefully we shall recover 'cause the situation was out of our control."

While not having problems with getting a permit from the police, the promoters of the Sunday beach series Igloo, which is held at the Sugaman's Beach Club in Portmore, have decided to postpone the signature event from this Sunday to June 20.

When THE WEEKEND STAR spoke to one of the promoters of the event, he explained: "Out of concern for our patrons, we decided to postpone it till things calm down. We thought it would be wise and so too did our sponsors Heineken."

According to the promoter, a number of patrons were upset by the postponement but they are expecting a large turnout for the 'Girls Gone Wild' edition on June 20. "We're expecting high energy and an even bigger turnout," the promoter commented.