Patrons enter the Port Royal Entertainment Centre, Port Royal, on Saturday, September 8. - Winston Sill photos

Coming off last year's hurricane threat affected main show, this year's staging of the Port Royal Music Festival was supposed to be the one that showed it had not only rebounded, but was poised to really take off.

After the many errors which marked last Saturday night's main show at the Port Royal Entertainment Centre, that 'poise' may have to wait for next year, much less for the take-off.

It is, of course, a wonderful idea, a music festival close enough to the capital city to be accessible without overnighting and, in so doing, drive up the expenses to attend. And Port Royal is at the end of a good stretch of road, with nice night scenery along the way. You actually feel as if you are going somewhere, yet you are not going far.

But the main show that was put on last Saturday was simply not up to standard. The performances, when they came, were good, even the little toops of Tarrus Riley that came after 4:00 a.m. One Third, Maxi Priest, Regina Belle and especially Brian McKnight were appreciated by the audience, but with a band change after every performer, added to the very late start (Regina Belle's band was doing a sound check after the show should have started, for crying out loud!) it was simply too much.

People did not even stick around for Leroy Sibbles and Jimmy Riley, and they did not come out anyway, not at nearly 4:30 a.m. and practically no one in the venue.

Then there were things like comments from the stage which were not meant for the audience coming over the sound system (like when on of the two MCs said: "Dem ready?"), a very long line for food that simply seemed not about to move.

And one other thing, it is either chairs for everybody or chairs for nobody. And at $3,500 per person to get in, I am sure people did not expect to stand or sit on the large stones near the water which accommodated many that long night. It is not like other kinds of music festivals, where there is grass to sit or lie on. The asphalt at the Port Royal Entertainment Centre is tough!

The good thing is that all these things are fixable. The bad thing is that the fixing has to be done in the first place, as it's a good venue in a good place.

And it is unlikely that it's will suffer as Sunsplash did when it came to Jam World in one phase of its cross island trek after it left Montego Bay.

Songbird Regina Belle sings her way into the hearts of many patrons during the Port Royal Music Festival, 'The Main Show', held at Port Royal Entertainment Centre, Port Royal, Kingston, on Saturday.