Sumfest Fever Still Lingers With Mackie Conscious
July 20, 2023 | By Supa Pea |
Sumfest, one of the world’s most popular reggae festival is much talked about, not only for the summer season, but all year- round.
However, the fever hits very high temperature around this time in July when Sumfest fans from North America the Caribbean- to name a few regions, are enjoying every minute of glorious performance, the foods, sunshine and beaches. This, for them is the ultimate summer holiday.
This year’s festival covering six glorious days, July 16 to July 22, is at the Catherine Hall Entertainment Center, MoBay where many memories begin and never ends.
Every entertainer who has graced a Sumfest stage and every Sumfest fan keep telling their stories, especially on their first occasion.
Ratafarian singer Mackie Conscious is one such artiste who cannot forget that night he opened the Sumfest show.
“It was for me a glorious time. That’s the same time Shaggy’s, It Wasn’t Me, ft. RicRok, became a hit. And, even though I kept telling myself, It wasn’t me on stage, it was the opposite. Here was The Conscious One ready to deliver.
“I remember being contacted by Johnny Gourzong, one of the promoters of the Sumfest show. And, to say the least, it was not surprising. Everyone knew I am a good artiste, delivering good music.
“I got some 20 minutes on set.
Rehearsal went well with the band, which over the years, included Gumption Band.
It was international night on which I performed and all eyes were on me. It was not a case of screaming during my performance, with responses coming at the end of my delivery.
“I started my performance at around eight o’ clock, rendering , What If. The second Who’s Your Friend, followed by The World Is In Trouble, Money and Power and Understand Each other.
I got the opportunity to greet a lot of artistes backstage and get some feeling of being a celebrity with all that attention.
“It was an awesome feeling to be in the presence of artistes like Sean Paul and Freddie McGregor’.
Over the years Mackie Conscious has been featured on several Sumfest shows.
“The gains are big as one gets a lot of media attention, and this helps every artiste to grow bigger in the music industry”.
