By Sheldon Williams – STAR Writer—

Up-and-coming entertainer Diiverse was hit with a microphone by a male artiste at a show in Canada last weekend.

Violence associated with dancehall music is said to be a major deterrent to event promoters securing venues for the hosting of stage shows in Canada.

As one promoter, Patrick Johnson, puts it, “It’s hard to get venues for dancehall stuff”. He said that Canadian venue owners are worried that violence and chaos could erupt during the staging of dancehall events.

Johnson, popularly known as Diamond Ice, of BYB, was the man behind last week’s staging of ‘Live in Toronto, Canada with Valiant’, which was held at Chateau Le Jardin in Toronto. The show was marred by an ugly incident, which saw up-and-coming dancehall artiste Diiverse being hit in her face with a microphone.

According to Diamond Ice, incidents like the one last week make it harder and more expensive to stage dancehall shows in the North American country.

“There is always some form of violence and we pay double what everybody else pays just to get extra police. I got 30 security instead of 20 or 25, which is double what everybody usually gets, so the show couldn’t get out of hand,” Diamond Ice.

In reference to the incident at his show that left Diiverse injured, Diamond Ice said the culprit was collared and he pleaded with persons not to hurt him, out of fear that the situation could get uglier.

“I had to be begging for peace. They wanted to beat him and I told them no, [because] that would stop us from going to Part Two, and we want to have a second show… I didn’t want this one little thing to stop us, black people, from getting chances.”

Eddie Wisdom, club owner in Canada, shared similar views about the disdain dancehall attracts.

“First and foremost, dancehall has gone somewhat ridiculous,” he offered. “Dancehall has gone to a level now where it is not about dancing any more but doing things to endanger other people and because of that, most club owners don’t want that in dem club, and therefore clubs are very hard to get.”

Wisdom said, too, that persons at these events appear not to recognize the extent to which their actions are being broadcast to the world, via social media. He is of the view that immigration officials may “make it difficult for you to bring an artiste here” if a bad reputation is developed.

Another issue that bothers Wisdom is the practice of some entertainers to turn up for events so late, it often denies promoters the opportunity to maximize their profits through liquor sales.

“Most of the artiste dem waah come a yuh club all after 1 o’clock and you can’t sell any liquor in the club after 2 o’clock. Suh to me that I am paying the big money dem for the artiste to come to Canada and then dem sit in dem hotel room and bun weed wid dem fren dem, and then all of dem wah roll out after 2 o’clock when I can’t sell alcohol. So what is the point?”

“These are the things I talk about. So when I am doing my contracts I tell the artistes if you come in my club after 12 o’clock don’t expect to make the money that we made the deal for because you come to the club after hours and make it hard for me to make money, and these are the reasons why clubs and venues are hard to get,” Wisdom said.