Events permits an important issue during local government elections — Howard McIntosh

Chairman of the Entertainment Advisory Board, Howard McIntosh, says that the issue regarding event permits, which is a major source of revenue for municipalities, is an important one to be placed on the table during Monday's local government elections.

Municipalities play a key role in the issuing of permits for events throughout the island.

"A key issue that has come up for years and came up, definitely during the time of COVID, is that of event permits. And we are talking about municipal elections now ... and from an entertainment industry standpoint we would love to see this issue addressed," McIntosh told THE WEEKEND STAR.

"We know that the entertainment permits is a major source of revenue for the municipal corporations but there are two issues there. One, there is the issue of what happens to the revenue and is it actually put back into entertainment? And that is something that we would definitely want to see happen, where the municipal corporations make a commitment to assist with entertainment and growing entertainment within their own municipalities," he added.

The second issue is the centralisation of the arduous event permit process. In order to be fully compliant when hosting events, promoters need permits from the Jamaica Constabulary Force; the Jamaica Association of Composers, Authors and Publishers; the Jamaica Fire Brigade; the Jamaica Music Society; in addition to a spirits licence where necessary. A fee must be paid to the municipal corporation before an event promoter can get a licence to host a party. All entities have separate locations and varying application processes.

"This [centralisation] is something that has been advocated for many times and there has been push-back and resistance to it," McIntosh said.

"But the way it's done now is not the most efficient. If it was centralised then the processing would be done so that all of the stakeholders will be involved and informed at the same time... and we think by doing that you are going to actually encourage more events. "

McIntosh noted that this issue came up during one of the two debates "but it is an issue that needs to be properly addressed".

"We hope that coming out of this ... after the elections ... we will see some attention paid to it. Again, it is all to promote the event industry within our entertainment industry which is a mainstay not only for employment, not only for enjoyment, but for the country at large as a cornerstone for Brand Jamaica. Our event industry is really first class and really we are showing that we are the festival capital of the world.

"Reggae Month is showing that and with upcoming events like carnival which starts next month and champs ... our events industry needs continuous support and needs to be streamlined in a way that makes the process easier. We will generate more revenue and will be better able to have efficient and more frequent events," McIntosh said.