‘Long live Sting’ — Heavy D

Less than one week after the curtains came down on the Sting, promoter Junior 'Heavy D' Frazer is focused on the 2023 edition and his mission to save dancehall, even as he blocks out "detractors and their hopeless negativity".

"Sting 2023 [is] up and running," Heavy D told THE WEEKEND STAR. "If Sting wasn't such an important event why Sting keep on trending? Three days now Sting trending at number one. Look how many shows keep over the holidays ... big show with international artistes and all kinda show ... nuff show keep the same night as Sting and yuh nuh hear people a talk bout dem show deh. We know that nobody nuh waste dem time kick dead dog; a live dog weh a bark and a gwaan wid themself that people pay attention to."

Heavy D and Isaiah Laing of Supreme Promotions, the outfit behind Sting, have come under pressure from various quarters following this year's staging which ended in disarray, preventing headline acts from performing. The duo was criticised before the actual event for ignoring tried and tested veteran acts in favour of young, new artistes who had never touched a Sting stage.

"Whether we like it or not the younger artistes are the future and we have to work with them," Heavy D said, echoing similar sentiments by Laing at the Sting launch.

Heavy D admitted that some of these young artistes "come wid problem" but pointed out that "problem is a overall artiste ting, whether young or old".

"Yuh see Vybz Kartel, him neva give Sting no problem. Beenie Man too ... but yuh see some a dem other one, God help wi," Heavy D said, adding that this year, the real challenge was the artistes who showed up "wid a whole village back a dem", despite being cautioned repeatedly that such antics would not be tolerated.

"We warned them and gave them 15 armbands each and additional tickets so that their people could go in the crowd and enjoy the show. Still every man come backstage with 40 and 50 man and then the whole entourage want to come on stage. We tell dem that two people can accompany the artiste on stage and then the rest jump fence and then police haffi a chase dem. Is the entourage that cause the problem, not the paying patrons. Dem never even know what a gwaan backstage. We have 200 police at Sting and they did a good job," Heavy D said.

He shared that from 6 a.m., the police told him that he had an hour left and started the countdown every 15 minutes, and that was when they tried to get the artistes who had not yet worked to perform a shortened set.

Although it didn't quite work as planned, Heavy D prefers to focus on the positives and raved about the production.

"When it come to big stage; clean, clear sound; lights; graphics ... Sting had it all first-world style. And we had a performing crowd who come to enjoy the show," he said.

"All me and Laing do is love dancehall and a try save it. Dem bring in soca pon we, dem bring in Afrobeats pon we, but we seh dancehall. And true that, people just walk round and a try crucify we. But Jesus came to save the world and they crucified Him, so we in good company. Long live dancehall! Long live Sting!" a satisfied Heavy D said.