Street dances have long been a staple of dancehall and Jamaican culture, but this may soon soon be a thing of the past.
According to reports, Jamaica’s Police Commissioner, Owen Ellington, has instructed law enforcement officials to clamp down on street dances that breached the Noise Abatement Act.
Ellington has ordered his senior officers to refuse street dance permits for events he deemed will inconvenient motorists and be a nuisance to households.
The Noise Abatement Act prevent promoters from hosting street dance beyond 2 a.m. and without police permit.
Without this permit street dance promoters could face serious fines.
Do you think clamping down on street dances will be bad for Jamaican dancehall culture?
Sound off below.
it is one thing to want to uphold the law it is another to tarnish the culture of a country. Street dances for jamaica is not only a culture and form of entertainment but for some it is their way of life and a rescue to stress, peer presure and so much more so I will more say that they should find a way to co exist with the promoters rather than tarnishing what the country is well loved for.
Owen Ellington soon dead and look and see if reggae music a go dead. A so dem did a fight Rasta and look now. One love people.
yes it will that his our culture u know in jamaica 2 am is the time we step out for dance.that’s so messt up what there doing if we don’t have our dance what will we have.
Another of the Americans and British plan to trample anything Jamaicans are doing.
They did the same thing to the the Jamaican weed, now look how many of there states it is legalise in.
Now that the equipments are no longer on the shelves or in the various stock rooms of europe or America, they want to implement ban. I say the Jamaicans should take back the equipments and ask for their money back.
It seems what the honorable gentlemen is forgetting is that America had their carniegy and various halls while the Europeans had their opera houses, royal Albert hall, royal festival hall, royal opera house and the list goes on… Jamaicans had street light, ah piece of plastic to cover the sound if you’re lucky, if you’re not lucky then you have to find some coconut branches. Despite this humble beginning or experience we had the time of our life.
And even with the other people dem greatest efforts, the stars the entertainment and the music did not come from their halls or houses. It came from the streets of Jamaica.
I am certain the honourable gentleman is familiar with the legacy (financial wealth, industries, schools, infrastructure and all the different amenities to aid our wellbeing and growth) that was left for us to live on when the other people dem left us. I am also certain that the honourable gentleman has not lost his memory as to how well we utilised the legacy to get where we are today.
Honourable Sir, it was not their legacy that got us where we are today, because they left non!
It was our people who tunnelled a pa$$age through that MOUNTAIN of despair, with music been the main fulcrum that see to our survival and growth. Rehearsals did not took place in their opera houses or halls, but instead by river sides, under trees and under street lamps, and di church…
Killing the music in Jamaica, by any of the devices they (the other people dem) have think up is simply to take food out of the mouth of the many that depends on it.
I am sure the honourable gentleman is not myopic in any sense shape or form and thus able to see through any plans by any foreign bodies to destroy the bread basket of so many of our Jamaican people. I am also confident that the honourable Sir would have had all the chronological evidence of the attacks and depletion on what we have created in Jamaica visve the music.
And I am even more confident that the honourable sir and his compatriots in parliament is never and will never be lethargic in his and their efforts to ensure the preservation of what is most of our people meal ticket and pa$$age to a better richer and fuller life.
Remember to act in the name of OUR land.
So I hope all decisions is guided by the interest of all our people.
MC
STREET DANCE IS GREAT WITHOUT CRIME. LOVE, PEACE, POSITIVE ENGERY.
IT JUST A GOD DAMP SHAME. THE CREATOR FREE THE BLACKS IN SOUTH AFRICA.THAT WENT THROUGH MENTAL SLAVERY.THEY LEGALIZE MAN AND MAN TO GET MARRIED. CHANGING THE CREATION OF GOD. SPERM HAS IT PURPOSE AND FUNCTION TO SWIM TO OUR MOTHER WOMB TO ATTACH TO A EGG TO BRING SOUL INTO THE UNIVERSE GOD LAW. RECTUM AND ANUS HAS THEIR PURPOSE AND FUNCTION TO REMOVE FOUL SMELL, E-COLI A BCATERICA, GAS AND WASTE MATTER. TWO ZULU MALE WAS GETTING MARRIED ON YOUTUBE. YOUNG BOYS SO CONFUSED AND LOST ABOUT CHANGING THE CREATION OF GOD.MY SOUL IS AT PEACE, LOVE, POSITIVE HAVE NO FLESH DESIRE TO CHANGE GOD CREATION. MY SOUL IS STRONGER THAN THE SATAN FLESH. WHEN HUMAN DIE THE WORMS WILL EAT THE SATAN FLESH. THE CREATOR WILL TAKE BACK THE SOUL AND FREE CHOICE. BLESSING HAVE A GREAT DAY.
THE UNIVERSE IS BECOMING LIKE A ZOO. STREET DANCE WITHOUT CRIME IS GREAT FOR HUMAN. LET EDUCATE HUMAN ABOUT LOVE , PEACE, BE POSITIVE, LOVE THE CREATION OF GOD, STOP ABUSING FREE CHOICE. THE GOD I KNOW WILL TAKE BACK THE SOUL AND FREE CHOICE. HUMAN WASTING SO MUCH TIME ABUSING FREE CHOICE. THE CREATOR GAVE THREE TICKETS MOTHER WOMB-EARTH-DEATH. I AM HAPPY I AM RICH I HAVE LIFE AND HEALTH, GRATEFUL FOR THE CREATION OF THE CREATOR , OXYGEN TO BREATHE, HEART BEATING EVERY SEC, WATER TO STOP THE ODOR. WATER FOR THRIST, I AM SO GRATEFUL TO THE CREATOR OF THIS BRILLION CREATION. MONEY AND MAN MADE MATERIAL DOES NOT MAKE ME HAPPY, MY FREE CHOICE. HOW MANY MILLIONARES HAVE TRILLIONS OF MONEY AND ARE DEPRESS, ON DRUG OVER DOSE, KILLING THEM SELF LATER BECAUSE MONEY DOES NOT MAKE PEOPLE HAPPY. BLESSING , PEACE, LOVE FOR ALL GOD CREATION.
Jamaica is a different place and culture when one is relating to street dance…U R talking about a country that grue up on street dance in some form shape or another…this is a country with a population of around 2.8 Million & around 4,240 square miles…u may ask…what these # have to do with the problem? well no thing & a lot…when U thing of the % of the population that like to go to street dance and the fact that they are all not from one place or are they partying in one location…there is a street dance in every parish of Jamaica all 7 nights of the week…Jamaica has a lot of Sound Systems spread all over the island, some big, some medium & some small…some is well known & some is just there….they all provide entertain for those who chose to fallow them…so who is U to tell me when I must go to my bed? is the question that the people that go to street dance is asking…if the dance is in the middle of no where & is disturbing no one them still want to lock off the dance…so the question is, is it the 2 am cut off time the problem (& how did we arrive at this cut off time?) or the inconvenience to motorist or the noise in general? so the BIG question is…what is the problem? & are we willing to work to wards a solution or is some people just going to say what I say goes and that is it…what is not said & every one is to know is that there is a lot of people who existence depend on the street dance getting a good turn out…to name a few…the venders of soup, gum, cigaret/lighter, cane/fruit, cook food/pan chicken, the men that watch U car & some times wash it, the after hours taxi drivers, the truck/van driver that transport the sound system, etc, etc…all of these people contributes to the sale of gas, liquor, ice, clothing and other goods and service from established business…Then U have those that come to net-work as this is a part of the business they call Reggae/Dance Hall and the street dance is a whole world by it self…no one can go a long with the blocking of the roads when every one want to go to work or about there business or the making of excessive noise when people want to sleep but let us not for get that the people that go to street dance at nights are a part of this society in witch we all live…there must be some mutual ground where the powers to B can work out a system for the street dance to operate…I could go on and on about the world of entertainment that we call street dance in Jamaica that comes alive when one part of the society is a sleep… but the long and short of it is “OUT OF MANY WE ARE ONE” and it “TAKES ALL KIND OF PEOPLE TO MAKE UP THIS VARIED SOCIETY IN WITCH WE CALL JAMAICA” so instead of putting a stop to some thing because it is not your cup of Tee or because you have the power to…Y not try to find an alternative to the existing problem…later and I hope it all work out in peace because times are hard on Jah people and it no easy when people things get confiscated or destroyed and U can’t say a word.
let people street do stop them, that make happy that culture, it done hard for them already to survive, do not do that mr owen after time if gog get vex he end world because he do like what u guy doing people they have freedom.
no it wont. am from st lucia we have street dance.but it don’t go beyond 2 am.