Can JamWorld rise from the dead? - Many believe venue could return to its glory days

Edi " We're sorry; this number is currently not active." This is the voice recording heard a fter dialling the listed number for JamWorld Portmore on their Facebook page.

This just about sums up the inactivity currently in effect for a once- vibrant and buzzing entertainment venue.

Once home to what was dubbed 'The Greatest One Night Show on Earth' - Sting, the JamWorld Entertainment Complex now sits idle, vandalised and overrun with shrubs and bushes.

There is not much to look at when one approaches the entrance off the Dyke Road.

The main gate luckily is still intact, and there are remnants of the once popular Sting set-up. A solid stage still exists, and the ticket area still stands firm, but the buildings that housed the entertainers backstage and the 'money room' as artistes liked to call it, have suffered severely at the hands of looters.

E-Probe made the trek over to JamWorld to take a closer look at the deserted venue and met with a few Portmore-based entertainers who voiced their concerns.

The likes of Tallman and Badda Bling of D-Unit, Mega Banton, Guidance, Ricky General, Prestige and Dymond Treasure converged at the venue, reminiscing, and urging Government and policymakers to do more for the entertainment venue.

"From Sting stop keep (in 2015), Sandz (held January 1, 2019) a di biggest and probably the only ting that keep over deh," said Badda Bling. "Sandz has been looking for venues, and this was probably to me, one of the best venue wey dem carry it in terms of parking and everything."

Sandz infamously caused lengthy traffic delays along the Palisadoes strip the previous year, affecting operations at the Norman Manley International Airport.

That sparked more debates over having dedicated entertainment venues and the idea of entertainment zoning.

So why has JamWorld, which is hailed as such a great entertainment venue, been so grossly underutilised?

According to Portmore entertainer Ricky General, "JamWorld a di right place, but hear wa happen wid JamWorld now. When people a look fi venue, dem nuh want dem bush ya. Dem want place wey dem can just come and set up dem ting. Anytime somebody tek it up and do the proper fencing and dem ting deh and can rent it, JamWorld will be great again."

Current state

Many will agree that JamWorld, in its current state, is unattractive, and would be a headache for any promoter.

"The venue is not ready-made because now if you rent it, you will have to carry in everything. And from three weeks before, you haffi guh start de-bushing, then you have to consider lighting, then fencing. So you find that the venues that already have some sort of structure, dem get most of the events. And you nuh really find nuff a dem venue deh a Jamaica anyway," Badda Bling said.

Sting boss Isaiah Laing recalls the first time he set eyes on the venue.

"It is because of Sting why JamWorld was conceptualised, because Mr Kemp Skeffery, (the architect responsible for building Cinema 1 & 2 and The Towers in New Kingston), took me over there when it was just bush and showed me because we had a problem at the National Stadium. And he said to me, 'I'm going to solve your problem, drive with me to Dyke Road'."

Within a year, the venue was ready.

Laing says: "For a show like Sting, it cannot be held anywhere else apart from JamWorld or the National Stadium. Unless I'm going out of town ... there's nowhere else in the Corporate Area which could really handle Sting. In those times, Sting used to pull a magnitude of 30,000 and up, and you really want your patrons to be comfortable."

Laing says venues like JamWorld are rare, and, as such, had hopes of developing the venue further, but acquiring the funds proved quite elusive.

"About 10 years ago, we did a walkthrough, we were going to build it out, and it was showing a cost of $600 million. But you would have a complete venue for almost everything ... it would comprise a full-sized football field, basketball, netball, swimming pool ... everything along with the entertainment part," Laing said. "JamWorld had a stage that probably wasn't thought out properly at the beginning, because I had to do some extension to it. And with a venue like that, you must have a nice backstage area, changing area and an area for production team."

Laing says these are 'must-haves', "or else every time you go there, you have to create one".

"And that was kinda set at JamWorld. It wasn't the best, but we had to make the best of it and added what we could to it. That building was done 1992 and finish in 1993, so now if you doing it, there is a lot more that could be done to make it comfortable," he said.

Laing says he has neither given up on JamWorld or Sting. Many may think that there is little hope of either being resurrected, but Laing believes otherwise.

"If JamWorld is ready by December 26, 2020, then Sting is going to be held there!" he said.

Join me next week to hear about the lost years of Sting, and its long awaited return.