KINGSTOWN, St Vincent (CMC) – An opposition legislator is calling for new regulations after a Jamaican artist refused to perform here over the last weekend because the show organiser was unable to meet his contractual obligations to the singer.

Thousands of patrons left the Victoria Park irate on Sunday after it became known that Jah Cure would not be performing. They threw bottles at the stage and police fired gunshots into the air to restore order.

Jah Cure…no show in St Vincent

Patrons had paid EC$50 (US$18.50) each to see the artist, and the promoter said while he had paid the Jamaican singer US$15,000 as the deposit, he was unable to make the final payment because 2,000 bogus tickets had been collected at the gate to the park.

In a tweet message on Sunday, Jah Cure apologised to his fans and explained that he did not perform at the “Irresistible Temptation” concert because the promoter did not meet his contractual obligations.

Opposition lawmaker St Clair Leacock, who was also at the show, said that he was among the disappointed fans.

“The artist never performed. There was more bottle-pelting in the Park than you could have had. Police had to come and shoot off shots to take back control of the Park and so forth and a lot of patron didn’t get what they paid for,” Leacock said on a radio programme.

Leacock, the shadow minister for trade, industry and commerce, said that if the promoter was ripped off, as is being alleged, “there is a need for tighter regulations in this thing”.

“Promoters cannot be allowed to put on a show and speculate that if they sell enough tickets or they collect enough money they will pay the artist and people will get their show.

When persons leave their home and go to the Park, they must be guaranteed that they will get what they pay for,” Leacock said, adding that the Value Added Tax Unit must now ask, in addition to collecting VAT on the tickets, to see the contract between the promoter and the artist.

He further suggested that they could offer to have the remaining 50 per cent owed to the artist lodge with the Unit to try “to make sure that patrons are not left like this”.

“So we need to do these regulatory things to make sure that patrons are not left like this. And people could be exposed to all sorts of things because when you have to have bottle pelting and police have to resort order by taking strong positions, then something is not right,” he said