A complete package of various elements of Creole music has been incorporated in the lineup of the 14th Annual World Creole Music Festival (WCMF), according to Leroy ‘Wadix’ Charles.
Charles, who has been appointed as an agent for Discover Dominica for promotion of WCMF leaves the island tomorrow for St. Thomas to perform his duties. Thereafter, he will visit St. Martin, Antigua, St. Lucia, Trinidad, Barbados, as well as New York during the Labour Day celebrations.
He said so far the marketing aspect is faring well, despite the fact that the committee received less funding from the Government as compared to previous years.
“This year it’s a more complete package where you have at least seven elements of Creole music. What we have done this year is to add the element of cadence lypso on all three nights because I believe that the foundation of the festival hinges on cadence lypso,” he noted in an interview with DNO.
Charles assisted with forming this year’s lineup. According to him, the public will be entertained by performers of songs Kukuro- one of the biggest Creole beats which originated from the Ivory Coast. “It has sort of replaced the Soukous; it’s the new wave hitting the French West Indies. We have incorporated the reggae element with Ali Campbell of UB40 … it will bring back the nostalgia,” he added.
Les Aiglons, Victor O, Kreyola, Midnight Groovers and Luciano will open the night for this year’s festival on October 29.
Saturday night features Jah Cure of Jamaica, Krosfyah Band from Barbados, Mas Compa, the WCK Band and Les Etoiles Du Candance.
Bringing the curtains down on the final night are Creole Stars featuring Princess Lover, Ali Campbells UB40, Orlane, Stefan Ravor, Costuleta and the MKG Band, T-Vice, Exile One and Triple Kay Band.
Tickets are being sold for a reduced price of $250 for a season ticket until August 31. From September, they will be sold at $300, and afterwards tickets will go back to their normal prices of $325 for a season ticket. Nightly tickets cost $120.
“The response has been overwhelming,” Charles said, encouraging patrons to take advantage of the special offer.
Charles assured the public that they should not be daunted since all the artistes are confirmed to perform.
“We have everybody on schedule. All the artistes have been given their deposits and it’s just a matter of continuing to promote the event,” he said.
@The Rock: The Rock you got something wrong firstly UB40 is not performing at the WCMF AGAIN PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT ITS THEIR FORMER LEAD SINGER WHO LEFT THE BAND TWO YEARS AGO,WHO WILL BE THEIR WITH HIS OWN BAND
SO ITS NOT THE COMPLETE STUFF…UB40 ARE STILL TOURING
AND AGAIN ITS INCORRECT INFO AS UB40 DOESNT PLAY FREE AT BARS IN EUROPE SIR,PLEASE GET YOUR FACTS RIGHT!! THEY MAY NOT HAVE A HIT IN A FEW YEARS SINCE PROMISES & LIES IN 1993 BUT THE BAND STILL DOES SELL OUT GIGS WORLD WIDE AND SURELY ARE LEGENDS…..HAVING SOLD OVER USD80 MILLON RECORDS WORLD WIDE DOES MAKE YOU GAIN SO DECENT PROPS…..TAKE NOTE…
Sunday evening, which should have been the lighter day because of the fact that there is work the following day and patrons need to go home earlier, is the heavier day in terms of content of Bands. This is the first year this has happened. One of the bands need to be shifted to Firday or Saturday evening…My 2 cents…
TIWE BOODEN METE PAILLE. MARK MY WORDS
You Monkeys will never learn….. Reggea should not be in WCMF. When Jamaica having their Reggea SunSplash, do they invite any Zouk, Bouyon or Compa band/ performer? Typical Dominican! The standar keep going down. UB40 has not cut hit is donkey years and prior to them getting a gig in DA for WCMF, they were in Europe playing for free at local bars. Now you Monkeys paying them big money and putting them up in hotel.. There are so many other better choices for less of a price and more talent….Wadix, you know this is true!
no KASSAV no WCMF……th beggest suport com from the french island and the UK, and if you doe have kassav there you should no they not coming……
Mr. Eddy Toulon dream going to waste, wat you putting jah cure in WCMF for,,, make a lil show wit jah cure in the week if you want but in the festival no…..
you all killing the WCMF softly,,,,
first it was sean paul, then sizzla now is jah cure…lol
man atleast play kassav o carimi cause they were the once that started the ting… come on
@vibes: correction to tour both North America and UK!
Wadix again its Ali Campell`s UB40 as he left the band since Jan 2008,for you info he started off as Ali Campbell and the Dep Band,but due to poor showbiz publicity as many never heard of that name is the music industry he revised his Brand name as ali campbell`s UB40.
So Patrons should be quite aware of this and not mislead thinking its the completle UB40!!
As both UB40 and Ali Campbell have their own tours….for you info UB40 is alive and kicking and released their fourth Labour of Love series on Feb 8th 2010 with his elder bro Duncan Campbell as their new lead singer..
http://www.ub40.co.uk
http://www.alicampbell.net
so its important to diseminate the correct info,, folks can view both tour sections of the sites
UB40 the Orginal group will be touring North America
While the former UB40 lead singer the Ali Campbell`s UB40 will be here for the WCMF!!
Thanks for taking note..
Sorry Wadix, but any promotional trip at this time to inform people to come to WCMF this year is a waste of time and money.
Since 2001 Eddie Toulon learnt the lesson that you cannot start promotion in August for an October festival. People living overseas plan their vacation one year in advance, that’s why so many Dominicans came down for the reunion because they knew well in advance of 2008.
After 14 years it does not appear that DFC has learnt anything about international promotions.
Local Dominicans will be the main patrons again together with their French departments friends.
No hard feelings but get this message and take the opportunity to start promoting for next year.
@hmmm:
when and where did wadix say that the lineup was not good. I read the whole article and i didn’t see that. I listened to the launching and different interviews and i have yet to hear wadix say that.
why give false info . we dominicans must learn to be fair and not bias.
@Eyes Wide Open: Good observation. Every year Govt. gives $$$$$$$ to WCMF from the taxes collected from Dominicans, yet the people cannot know whether WCMF really makes a profit or loss. The organisers simply indicate that we did not make a profit, which leaves the matter open to speculation, and rightly so. Wouldn’t it be more prudent to publish a correct statement of accounts, (the amount donated, from whom, receipts from the show and the expenditures)? Isn’t that good business principle to furnish the people, who gives money to an event like the WCMF, with a comprehensive report? Irrespective of the absence of such a statement of accounts, Govt. and other corporate entities every year still donates to WCMF. This time around we demand a Statement of accounts to the public within the shortest time possible. Accountability and Transparency must be the watchword here.
wadix is promoter and he doesn’t believe that it is a good lineup..shame on him
Wadix, I know u are capable. Please, as a radio personality also keep on playing the music and let the listeners know who will be the performers as I can confirm that many of us know the songs but not the correct names of the artists. I think the line up is good and can cater to a wide cross section of folks. Young, not so young, old and all can get a taste. Congratulations and let’s take full advantage of the reduced price of $250. Compare this price to other festivals in the Caribbean. Our event is priced right.
You are so right. The festival management has done ok over the past few years in bringing many popular bands to DA, but the nostalgia has long since died and we have to pay attention to the shody management job.
We have quite a few good musicians and DJs of creole music but that does not make them good marketers! Maybe its a lack of talent that we have in DA. However, I would want to think its not lack of ideas. Seriously though the so-called overseas marketing is a waste of time and money. There are many many ways of promoting a so called world event. Where is the web presence? Its 2010 and after 14 years there is no updated websites where you get full details on the event, program the bands etc.,.just details that would be useful to everyone…where is the means of buying tickets online…and they said they have an August sale!! Overwhelming response they say? Yeah right. I was at the event last year and on the first night not even Kassav could bring more than 300 people to the grounds. The stands had a couple hundred!! Again, I respect people like Wadix as being really in the groove on the latest music and he remains a great DJ. Not sure that this translates into a marketing agent; nor am I satisfied that they know how to manage this festival properly! At this pace the festival might be just a memory in a few years!
Great job Wadix now that is what I call a well balanced line up for the festival……
jamband still rocking?? i suspect you are some one leaves in the VI..jamband struggling to get a hit, these guys dont even toru come on lets be real here, suga band & small axe ok but not jamband they havent been a band since friday passed…..how you mean to much focus on reggae and not enough creole bands, 85% of the line up french bands….stay in st thomas & seat down
@TMP:
That’s a pretty fair statement….I have been suggesting Emeline Michel to DFC on their site for years…I think they want people that will guarantee a crowd, but introducing new artists is a brave step that I think will be well appreciated once that artist has great music.
as anyone seen da line its not worth 325.00 this is pure bull s***
I just hope this year they make a profit Bon Dieu, every year you see more and more people patronising this event and yet the DFC never seems to make any profits, I just hope this year is different.
JAH CURE JAH CURE JAH CURE JAH CURE JAH CURE——-ALL THE WAY WITH JAH CURE !
jezzz typical black person…..can’t never be satisfied ..unfortunatley u were not the one chosen to pick the line up so dude do us all a favor and shut the heck up!!!..i think alot of ppl can agree that compare to the last few years the festival seems to be getting back on the right track!!!
P.S. Next time it would only be fair that u give people their praises where due than just going full force into the bashment process!!
Hello with the advent of the Internet, must persons go physically and market WCMF? They spend so much money to do just that. They collect so much money from the Vendors and I also understood that they want to raise the price of the vendors. Can the Festival Committee do much better than that. Is this a joy spree and at the end they cannot pay their debts. Come on you have to do things differently. Do you remember the last WCMF. Where were the Dominican crowd? Had it not been for the French persons and St Lucians, the festival was poorly attended. Again with persons going out there and marketing to spend the money before again. A whole year to do the marketing. So many different ways to do so – Phones . DD .. Facebook .. other social network. What about the Dominican crowd? are you all leaving them out as last year. Was a post mortem done? Do the Commissjon ask for Financial Statement of the Vendors? If you did, you would see the losses some of them made. I could go on and on but I must stop here. Let someone affected last year say something.
Some thing is wrong wuth the way we do things in Dominica every year is diffrent people to do an annual event.It should be like 1 2 3 now knowing is a while the WCMF is on. I hope for the best because I heard so may things about the promotor now that same promotor handling on of our biggest events. I also think the price for a ticket is to high that is just to high come one 300 dollars a ticket for three days, It attracts less persons, to attend, come on think better and stop the job for the boys when there are people who can do the dame job.
Well I think the line up is fair enough though there are other bands missing from the festival. I think for the past 6 years the festival has lost it flavor and keeps loosing it every year. One of the major reasons for this as always is making the public hear the music of the artist who will be performing. It should be a duty of the committee to make a serious effort in promoting the bands on the local radio stations and their websites.
Some of the original asspect of the festival are still missing, such as the salsa/spanish culture, the soukouss, though kuduro is taking over sokouss, kuduro is like a techno of sokouss and not everyone may like these high tempo electronic music althoug it should be recorgnised.
In terms of soca I belive that there are too many repitionof the same bands like krossfyah, flames and the others. There are still varieties of bands such as the Nu Vybes (Sugar) Band from st. Kitts, also Small Axe Band, Grandmasters band then further up to the USVI there’s Cool session Brass who have proven and shown their talent in Dominica, tere bands like Jam band who are still rocking hard and many other bands up north the lesser antilies.
In terms of Kompa hmmm.. there are so many new generation bands such as Krezi Mizik, Faranheit, Dola, 1st klass and so much more that are capable of giving an amasing show.
Though they say that this year looks promising It is still in my opinoin that too much focus was put on Reggae artist rather than the Krewol artist.
On another note when it comes to loacal artist performing at the festival i think that there should be a critera that the local bands who get priority to perform are the ones who release a CD within that year. I think we are making the local bands lazy and yet full of their selves. Instead the calypso artist and performers should be given the place every year in the festival for keeping our culture and heritage alive.
These are all my opinoons and I’ve been to the festival all the years of existance to this day.
I do hope that this year is better and the original flow and flavor of the festival is revived.