At a press conference in Hommage Hotel on Friday were (from left) L’Académie de Métiers digital teacher Johan Joneau, tourism students Jahshyla Gregoire and Loana Larochaise, SXM Festival founder and organiser Julian Arbia, Isidore “Mighty Dow” York, and landscape partners for the festival Janet Butcher and Bob Steggert. (Robert Luckock photo)
MARIGOT--Organisers of this year’s much-anticipated return of SXM Festival March 9-13 have decided to bring the island’s culture and music more to the forefront of the event, something that has been missing in the past.
The sounds of the steel pan have always been synonymous with Caribbean culture and what better way to introduce the instrument to techno music lovers around the globe than at this year’s festival. Throw in exotic Carnival dancers and you have a spectacle guaranteed to delight festival-goers.
To venture in this new direction, Isadore “Mighty Dow” York and his Ebony Steel Orchestra, under the guidance of the festival’s organiser and founder Julian Arbia and selected DJs, have been rehearsing tracks that blend steel pan with techno. Ultimately the objective is to make recordings of original material.
“The idea is that we are going to record songs and sell them on Itunes afterwards, and all of the proceeds will be going back to the kids, to buy instruments and outfits, or whatever the school needs,” explained Arbia. “And after the festival when we have more time, we will compose an anthem together, get it remixed by the biggest DJs in the world with, again, the proceeds going back to the kids.”
Mighty Dow said he was initially surprised when approached to take part in the project, but was up for the challenge. “My first thought was how do we fit into this, but when I saw the video that was made at Rain Forest Adventures for the last festival, and heard the techno songs on it, I realised we can do this,” he said. “I agreed to start working on the project in January.
“Knowing when you are working in music and especially covering other people’s songs you feel you have to stick to limits, or do it in a special way, but Julian said, ‘No, you can elaborate and add to it,’ and that’s what I love. I love the freedom to create. We’ve been rehearsing and sending videos of the practice sessions to Julian. It’s going to be a good experience for us to be part of the festival and the students are excited.”
One of the tracks being re-interpreted by Dow is particularly popular in the house music scene. The idea is to build a set list of songs to play live at the festival.
“We don’t know where and when the steel band will play yet, and it also depends on how many songs we can come up with,” added Arbia. “We are still building the programme, but now we are able to enrich the festival in the right way with local culture.
“Music is universal and electronic music especially is very inclusive. We are humbled as an organisation to share this project with such an iconic musician as Dow who has dedicated his life to music.”
Also new to the festival this year is the inclusion of students studying tourism at L’Académie des Métiers training institute in Hope Estate. The students are studying for a Brevet de Technicien Supérieur (BTS) qualification, a post-secondary national professional degree in tourism studies, and have identified SXM Festival as playing a major role in the economy and tourism development of the island.
L’Académie des Métiers contacted Arbia with a request to use the festival as a project for the students’ semester and to assist them with marketing and promotional tools for event planning. It turned out the students’ teacher Johan Joneau and Arbia knew each other from a previous contact in Montreal.
“I was impressed when the students chose the festival, because it’s actually more of a marketing machine for the island than a party, because the island is being promoted 365 days of the year but the party is only five days,” Arbia noted.
Part of the project for the students will be to have an information booth in the festival made from recycled materials where they can answer questions from attendees about the island and ask attendees for feedback on their vacation experience. There are 12 students in the first year of the two-year BTS course.
“We will be at the festival every day and rotating in small groups, three or four at a time,” explained student Jahshyla Gregoire from Concordia. “We will have to write 40 pages on the festival, so it’s a big thing for us. None of us have been to the festival before, so it will be quite an experience.”
