The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH officials are not aware of plans for an upcoming advertised concert and have not given any approval, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville said yesterday.

A flyer promoting a concert for Jamaican singer Shenseea lists the event’s date as March 19.

This situation comes after promoters of a Dexta Daps concert failed to secure approval from the Ministry of Health. Organisers wanted the Reggae Valentine event to be held Friday, February 11, at the Thomas A Robinson Stadium carnival grounds, but Dr Darville said in a previous interview that officials first rejected their application on January 17 and then rejected it a second time later.

Asked yesterday if the Ministry of Health was considering giving an approval for an event like the latest advertised concert, the minister answered: “Not at this time. We’ve made some adjustments to our rules and we believe the adjustments that we made are fair. It helps to open up the economy.

“As we begin to monitor the pandemic, we’ll make determination whether we’ll relax even further rules, but as it stands right now events of this proportion (are) not allowed under our rules and this particular event we are unaware of it and we encourage every Bahamian who (is) planning an event to avoid embarrassment and to avoid incurring additional expenses to notify the Ministry of Health to see if you can get approval.”

Attempts by The Tribune to contact the event’s promoter were unsuccessful yesterday.

However, the event organiser addressed the issue on social media over the weekend, suggesting that although advertisements were being circulated for the concert to take place in March, it could happen at a later date when events are approved “at some point”.

“Listen.. It’s simple. We would appreciate if you guys share the flyer. Keep the negativity to y’all selves. At some point events will happen. We’re just hoping it’s this time, however, we request that you save the date. We didn’t give a ticket price for a reason.”

The organiser also responded to a post stating Dr Darville was unaware of the concert scheduled to take place “next month”.

“This is really how you figure out the enemies. . .That thing only (the flyer) have March 19th. . We know it’s a possibility that The Bahamas is one year behind. Who even told y’all that was next month? Y’all really fast (sic),” the organiser said.