Former Dexta Daps Concert Promoters: We Will Repay Customers Who Bought Tickets for 2020 Concert That Never Happened
The much anticipated Dexta Daps concert brought even more publicity than expected. While the fans are looking forward to a night of great entertainment, promoters from the 2020 version of the event are voicing their discontent. The issue goes back to March 2020, just at the start of the Covid Pandemic. The Jamaican dancehall and reggae performer, Dexta Daps, was booked to perform in Belize, but when the shutdowns started, it never happened. The promoters of that concert are now left to repay their customers who purchased tickets. They called a press conference today to explain how the COVID pandemic thwarted their concert plans and that their correspondences with the artist after the borders had reopened amounted to nought. It is a matter over which they say they will take up a legal battle with Daps, whose proper name is Louis Grandison. But while they battle in court to retrieve what they say they have paid the artist, they want to make it right with their customers. News Five’s Marion Ali reports.
Marion Ali, Reporting
It was a concert promoted in 2020 that never happened because of the COVID pandemic’s onslaught, forcing a global shutdown.
Dion “DJ Dixie” Longsworth
Dion “DJ Dixie” Longsworth, Promoter
“Wi tell dehn wi have to cancel it, soh dehn seh okay, no problem. Just shoot another date when all this done. Wi understand, da wa pandemic, that da part of the contract wi good.”
But all was not good after the borders reopened. Promoters of the initial Dexta Daps concert, Dion “DJ Dixie Longsworth and Sheila Pollard of Go Get Her Entertainment explained today that their efforts to try and get the artist to come and carry on with his show fell flat, and that was after they said they had covered half of the artist’s fees.
Dion “DJ Dixie” Longsworth
“Yoh have to put fifty percent and then dehn get the econd part when dehn reach right before dehn perform. Da mi just lotta lingering, lingering till dehn finally seh Dexta got new management. Ih get popular and ih get more hits within da two years. Soh fi we eleven U.S. da nothing.”
Sheila Pollard
Sheila Pollard, C.E.O, Go Get Her Entertainment
“Dehn nuh try reach out to we yoh know. Behind the scenes I was the one doing all the communicating with these people. And they have not said let’s try to do it in this way or let’s try to do this. Nothing. So yeah, it is disrespectful.”
During the shutdown, Longsworth was also looking forward to the day when the borders would reopen, and the concert would take place. In the meantime, he was trying to pacify his customers who had already invested in tickets.
Dion “DJ Dixie” Longsworth
“People buy ticket. I da somebody weh like give soh I done tell everybody when we do the show again, if you have wa general (admittance ticket) I wa upgrade it to wa VIP, if you have wa VIP I wa upgrade it to wa platinum, if you have wa platinum I wa give you wa bar tab. Because I believe eena the people.”
Longsworth said he realized they would now have to cough up the money to reimburse their customers who had bought tickets when it became evident that their agreement on paper was not going to pan out favourably. He told the media today that keeping their name clean is paramount to making money.
Dion “DJ Dixie” Longsworth
“We di worry bout our reputation now. I do from Popcorn to Kes Band to – you name it, our reputation deh pan the line. Money da nuh the problem – whatever – all we want is a date fi honour our people cause if we neva sell tickets to a hundred and odd of our people we nuh mi wa worry bout it, the loss and all the back and forth.”
Dion “DJ Dixie” Longsworth
“Soh everybody weh purchase we wa put up, give we like a week or two soh that wi put up wa proper thing.”
Longsworth and Pollard say they will file a lawsuit against the artist to recover the money they paid him for the concert. They also say they will inform those who purchased tickets via Facebook how they will be reimbursed. Marion Ali for News Five.
In a Facebook post today, Dexta Daps responded to the claims made by Longsworth and Pollards press conference. In it he said, quote: “Let’s start it with the (unsigned) contract you provided me… mama Sheila n papa Dixie, please pay close attention to who you sent your money to…also, please understand that you didn’t even have a signed contract. … If you want me to continue with the proof then I will, unquote. The artist closes by expressing his eagerness to perform in Belize this Saturday, of course, by his new promoters.
