Promoters of the Western Kite Festival are angered by the behaviour of deejay I-Octane at the show which took place on Sunday in Westmoreland.
Promoter of the show, Tia Rainford contacted The STAR yesterday following comments made by the deejay in Tuesday’s publication of The STAR explaining the bottle-throwing incident which took place.
According to the story published, reports are that I-Octane’s early exit from the stage during his set was what caused the bottles to be thrown. However, the artiste had a somewhat different account of what took place.
According to I-Octane, patrons had been waiting in the venue for his performance from 5 p.m. Popcaan performed earlier and so he decided to ‘work’ with Romain Virgo because there was only one functioning CD player. “Wi talk to the crowd and try get dem sympathy and dem a enjoy themselves. Then this one CD player stop and the crowd started asking for it to be fixed,” he said. He then pleaded for the lights to be dimmed so he could see what was taking place in the crowd, but the lights were left on.
fling bottle
“Me is a man weh nuh just walk off a stage so but the tone mi neva like it. True dem vibe mi neva waan turn mi back and sup’m go gwaan. Mi just seh to dem seh since unuh nuh waan hear wah mi a seh mi a seh unuh work then. Di crowd get vex wid dem and start fling bottle,” he said. The artiste said he was already on his way out of the venue when the incident took place.
Rainford, however, tells a slightly different version of the story. She said, “He was set to perform between 11 p.m., – 12 a.m. When he came to the venue he was there ready to perform at 11 and I asked him to hold off for a few. He wanted to perform before Romain Virgo and when Virgo was on stage he called him on to perform.” According to Rainford, they were experiencing problems with the microphone which Octane knew about before going on stage.
Rainford said, “he went on stage and said ‘who know dah selector boy yah? Him deserve a bottle fi dah mic yah.” Rainford said Octane wanted a ‘dark segment’ but due to the set-up of the lighting system it was impossible to provide him with one. After being informed that a dark segment would not occur, Octane decided to cut his performance short. “He dropped the mic and while he was walking off bottle throw and he had to run for cover,” Rainford said.
breach
She further explained that the artiste breached the contract signed when he only performed for 10 out of the 30 minutes promised. The artiste was paid in full for his performance.
She said, “Octane and his team needs to compensate me, he breached his contract with his short performance. The sound system got damaged as a result of the bottling and I have to compensate them for it. He was complaining backstage that he had to go back to Kingston cause he was booked for another show. They asked me to book rooms for them in Negril to stay overnight, I booked three rooms and paid for them and they didn’t inform me that he wouldn’t be using them. Only Ray Alexander stayed over, so all that money went down the drain.”
She says Octane or his team has not contacted her since leaving the venue on Sunday. “Ray (Alexander) has to call me to apologise and compensate me,” she added. “The reason bottles were thrown on stage was because Octane refused to do his performance. He dropped the mic on stage and didn’t show respect for the patrons and promoters,” she said.
