JAMAICANS FROM EVERY corner of the city and the country literally tried to squeeze into Emancipation Park in New Kingston for the finals of the Digicel Rising Stars competition last night.
Approximately 15,000 people were crammed inside the park and double that amount were estimated to be outside the venue trying to get inside.
Digicel, title sponsors for the show were forced to call off the show at 7:25 p.m. after three mini stampedes which saw several children, adults and at least one security guard being injured. As the crowd swelled to a size too great for the police to control, people started to faint and the safety was compromised.
According to Digicel Commercial Director, Harry Smith, the pre-show had been held as planned, however, just before the taping of the televised segment and following Daynea Deacon's performance, they decided to stop the event.
"We anticipated there would be a large crowd, but not of this magnitude. We had seen that the results show audience was growing in the last few weeks and so we had decided that we should get a bigger venue," Smith said.
He said ideally they would have wanted to have a ticket system for entry but because the show was being held at a public place, they could not restrict people from entering the park. He said that now they are looking at using another venue possibly the National Arena or National Stadium. They are currently seeking permission to use those venues and are considering next Friday for the next staging.
The New Kingston police said they were generally unprepared for the crowd, although officers from St. Andrew Central and St. Andrew South Police Divisions and the Traffic Headquarters assisted. "You would have to have the whole JCF to control the crowd," one officer said.
She said the main problem was the crowds' indiscipline as once people started to enter sections that were out of bounds such as the VIP and backstage sections, there was little they could do to control them.
"There was just too many people. You can't be at a place and you can't move freely. You can't walk. Is an open air thing and people fainting from the heat, it was just too much," she said.
Charge a fee
The officer proposed that the event should have attracted a fee as less people would have attended.
In the meantime, Smith said Digicel will be paying for any damage at the park and says at the next show they will be doing the pre-show and the taping and will ensure that there is greater control.
Finalists Noddy Virtue from St. Elizabeth or Christopher Martin from St. Catherine were competing to become the next Digicel Rising Star.
The competition started in Portland in April and went to five parishes. Each week the public voted and eliminated contestants until it came down to the final two. In the televised segment of the competition fifteen contestants battled over six weeks for $500,000 and a recording contract with Gee Jams Studios.
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