Kingston, 10 January 2020 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, has described the new Reggae Month App as a “game changer as the government intensifies efforts to promote Jamaica’s music to the peoples of the world.”

The App, commissioned by the Reggae Month Secretariat, is now available for download on Android and iOs devices. It provides a comprehensive list of activities being held in celebration of Reggae Month 2020 in Jamaica and its Diaspora, among other features.

Minister Grange said:
“The Reggae Month Jamaica App provides a great platform for everyone to get and share information about Reggae Month 2020, which is going to be the best staging yet. The App is very interactive and allows promoters to add their events to the list of Reggae Month activities alongside those events that are being organised by the Government of Jamaica or endorsed by the Reggae Month Secretariat.

As such, I invite all companies, artists and producers to share with us your Reggae Month plans so that they can be included, or to upload the info using the App.

I also invite every hotelier, including small properties, to position Reggae Month activities as a must-see for all our visitors during February 2020.”

To download the App, search the words ‘Reggae Month Jamaica’ in the Google Play or App Store.

Reggae Month celebrations are being led jointly by the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport and the Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with several stakeholders.

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Kingston, 9 December 2019 – The Minister of the Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, and the Minister of Tourism, the Honourable Edmund Bartlett, have launched Reggae Month 2020 to be celebrated under the theme ‘Come ketch de riddim.’

Since 2008, the month of February has been recognised annually in Jamaica as Reggae Month.

“We deliberately decided to launch before Christmas,” said Minister Grange who declared that Reggae Month 2020 would be “the best ever.”

“We are determined to produce a world-class and exciting package for Reggae Month 2020,” said Minister Grange whose Ministry and its agencies are organising Reggae Month celebrations jointly with the Ministry of Tourism and its agencies.

Minister Bartlett said “we want to invest more in Reggae Month and so the Ministry of Tourism along with the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport will put serious funding into Reggae Month from next year onwards.”

Reggae Month usually features a series of live entertainment activities across the island for the entire month of February. However for 2020, celebratory activities will be held in the Diaspora, as well.

“We are partnering with Miramar in Florida,” said Minister Grange, adding that “we have worked out a series of activities that we will do in Florida and we will have exchanges during the month of February between Miramar and Kingston.”

The Vice Mayor of Miramar, Alexandra Davis, said the city was looking forward to including Reggae Month celebrations into the Black History Month commemoration.

The Vice Mayor said Miramar was well placed to lead Reggae Month celebrations in the Jamaican Diaspora as several Reggae icons reside in the city “where all five of the elected officials that run the city are of Jamaican descent or were born in Jamaica, so Reggae is very close to our hearts.”

The Reggae Month Secretariat has also forged a strategic partnership with the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association under which hotels will offer special rates on accommodation for Regge Month.

Both Ministers Grange and Bartlett have invited Jamaicans in the Diaspora and the peoples of the world to come to Jamaica during Reggae Month 2020 and enjoy our infectious rhythm.

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Kingston 5 February 2019 – The Chairman of the Entertainment Advisory Board, Howard McIntosh, is calling for “global support of Reggae Month by Jamaicans at home and abroad.”

McIntosh was speaking after the well-attended Reggae Month Church Service at Fellowship Tabernacle on Sunday.

He said he hoped to see “hundreds of thousands to visit our shores in February next year consistent with our objectives to have 5 million tourists visit our shores annually.”

McIntosh also encouraged the local media to support Reggae Month by playing more Jamaican music during the period. “We need to celebrate our music legacy in as many ways possible,” he said.

The Entertainment Advisory Board was appointed by the Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, as part of her programme to establish the appropriate infrastructure on which to construct a viable and vibrant creative economy.

Kingston 23 January 2019 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, has welcomed the announcement of the Minister of Tourism, the Honourable Edmund Bartlett, that his Ministry is providing J$25 million towards the further development of the Jamaica Music Museum, also referred to as the Reggae Museum.

The Jamaica Music Museum, which was launched by Minister Grange and brought into operation in 2009, is a division of the Institute of Jamaica — an agency of the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport.

Minister Grange said the support of the Ministry of Tourism will fast track the development of the Jamaica Music Museum which is “now housed in the corridors of the Institute of Jamaica”. 

Minister Grange said:

“The inscription of the Reggae Music of Jamaica to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list makes it even more urgent for us to intensify our work on the Jamaica Music Museum as a major resource in promoting and preserving our music, and this support from Minister Bartlett will go a far way in helping us to establish, in a short period of time, a museum befitting Reggae’s global status.  This is a great example of Ministers, Ministries and Agencies working together for the benefit of the people of Jamaica.  It goes to show that when you put us [Minister Bartlett and I] together, nobody can beat us.”

Minister Bartlett said support for the further development of the Jamaica Music Museum will be provided through the Tourism Enhancement Fund.  He said the sum of J$25 million has been set aside for the further “scoping, design and the development of the concept of a physical museum… then you give us the budget for what is required for the rest of it.”

Minister Bartlett explained that the investment in the Jamaica Music Museum is part of a broader strategy to develop the Reggae product.  The strategy includes investment in the development of trails to sites that are significant in the history of the music and the use of Reggae in a new advertising campaign for the Jamaica Tourist Board.

Ministers Grange and Bartlett were speaking at the launch of Reggae Month 2019 on Sunday.

Reggae Month, celebrated annually in February, is being organised jointly by the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport and the Ministry of Tourism.

Kingston 21 January 2019 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange has announced that the most senior official with responsibility for culture at UNESCO will be her special guest for Reggae Month in February.

Minister Grange made the announcement of Ernesto Ottone Ramirez’s visit at the launch of Reggae Month 2019 on Sunday.  Mr Ottone Ramirez, the former Culture Minister of Chile, is the UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Culture.

Minister Grange said Reggae Month 2019 will be special.

“This Reggae Month is the grand celebration party for the recent inscription of the Reggae Music of Jamaica to the UNESCO list of Intangible treasures for the whole of humanity,” said Minister Grange who added Reggae Month will also commemorate the 50th anniversary of Reggae Music.

The Minister described the recent inscription of the Reggae Music of Jamaica to the UNESCO list as a continuation of efforts to preserve Jamaica’s music.

Minister Grange said: 

“The act of preserving Reggae was exactly the point when we instituted Reggae Month in 2008.  That first official Reggae Month was the culmination of efforts of the many stakeholders in our music to formally recognise the power and reach of Jamaican music.  

“And I am delighted to have worked with the many stakeholders again during the last two years to bring a case to UNESCO to safeguard and recognise Reggae as a unique creation of the Jamaican people.”

Reggae Month 2019 will begin with a Street Party on Orange Street on February 1, 2019.  Other activities include tributes to Bob Marley and Dennis Brown; a month-long exhibition on Reggae Music at the African Caribbean Institute of Jamaica; the Global Reggae Conference at the University of the West Indies, Mona; a series of weekly Reggae Films in the Park at Emancipation Park; the JARIA Honour Awards and the Reggae Gold Reception and Awards Ceremony at which 50 icons will be honoured for their contribution to the Reggae Music of Jamaica.

Reggae Month is being organised jointly by the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport and the Ministry of Tourism with support of the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association; the Jamaica Federation of Musicians and Affiliates Union among other stakeholders.

“It is my pleasure — along with my colleague Minister of Tourism, the Honourable Edmund Bartlett — to invite the peoples of the world to join us in Jamaica during the month of February for a celebration of Reggae like no other,” said Minister Grange.