By GERMAINE SMITH, Staff ReporterDIVERSIFICATION IS THE secret.
Those are the words coming from the collective mouths of the promoters in explaining the ballooning support that their weekly street dances have been receiving lately.
The way in which these dances have surged could serve as a potent lesson in marketing and event management. Despite their attendance of nightclubs and other sessions, free street dances it seems are the new rage for party goers.
'Early Mondays'
In Standpipe, Liganea, St. Andrew, the session called 'Early Mondays' boasts that its claim to fame is the chance that it offers patrons to go home early. With the session ending at midnight, this makes it a rarity in Kingston where party goers tend not to show up for events until after 1 a.m.
"Early Mondays was a trend setter in what we brought out," explains Snoop, the promoter. "With what we offer, people can come out early like back in the days, party like crazy, and still go home and get some good sleep for work the next day. People had doubts about coming out early in the night but they really caught on to it eventually."
At the McKinney's Passa Passa, each week there are attractions and activities for the different groups that attend. Over its tenure, there have been giveaways from individual sponsors. People have left there with t-shirts, tickets to other events, appliances, and of course, free alcohol.
Separate from that, there is a segment of the session called 'new tune' segment, there is a time where a guest sound system is allowed to play, and another segment where a guest selector is allowed to play.
Activities like these are what promoter Marc Johnson calls 'marketing strategies' for the street dances. He is the promoter of east Kingston's 'Stress Free Thursdays', and feels that the more diversified the sessions are, the more people will flock them.
His session has been around for just over a month now, and despite earlier glitches, now boasts a decent sized crowd each week.
"For too long some of us have thought that people just walk into an empty room to listen to music, or that people are just hungry to hear music. People must see the need to be at your event," he states. "You have to get a creative angle to your session and find innovative ways to get people."
So far, 'Stress Free Thursdays' has also included dress themes in its weekly sessions. Added to this there are frequent guest performers thrown in with random giveaways.
In the end, perhaps the real lesson to be learnt is that people's tastes, especially in the dancehall genre, changes quickly. They become bored easily, so as a promoter or entertainer, you just have to try as best as possible to keep their interests.
