( L - R ) Jimmy Cliff and Toots - FILE PHOTOS
HOPEFULLY, THIS WILL be TWATR (The Weekend After The Rain), with 'Wilma' moving away. But then, it has been moving away for a couple days now and the weather has been pretty bad up to Thursday.
The list of postponed shows last weekend is long - pretty much everything outdoors, actually, from Friday night onwards. The lone soldier was the Tempo show to start the series of concerts across the Caribbean to launch MTV's regional channel. And even that made for TV event, initially slated for two days, had to be compressed into one, with Jimmy Cliff, Toots and The Maytals and Morgan Heritage among the original Saturday night performers who went on stage at the James Bond Beach in St. Mary on Sunday night, along with Bounty Killer and Elephant Man, among others.
PRE-PURCHASED TICKETS
There is a concern, however, with the process of dealing with pre-purchased tickets after a show is cancelled or postponed, whether for rain or other circumstances outside the promoter's control.
In Jamaica, despite often attractive discounts for ticket purchases before the date of the concert, the overwhelming number of tickets are sold at the gate - beats me why, actually, as most people know that they are going to a particular event well in advance.
The exceptions that I have noticed, from the perspective of living in Kingston, are the Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival and Red Stripe Reggae Sumfest.
There are three possible factors to this: the distance that people have to travel, so they do not wish to have any hassles at the gate; the considerable savings involved in pre-purchasing tickets; and the publicity of ticket outlets.
One person is as important as 1,000, though, and whatever number of ticket holders is left out in the cold after an event is put off, the promoters need to make themselves available for a refund. Straight refund. I am not even for the option of the person holding on to the ticket for the rescheduled date of the concert (if any).
For one, it puts the onus of keeping the ticket safe on the purchaser, and keeping track of a concert ticket for a couple days can be hell, much less a couple weeks. Then, there is the matter of the ticket getting defaced and then it is refused at the gate, or some bright spark 'holding the gate' deciding that the ticket is no longer valid.
Plus, there may be performers originally slated for the show who will not be on the rescheduled one, due to prior commitments, and that person is the one the ticket holder wanted to see, above all others. Or the person's plans may change unexpectedly and they are left with a worthless ticket or two.
Rain, riot or other circumstance, I am for refunds all the way.
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