Stephen Marley’s Babylon By Bus Tour Stop In Longs, South Carolina Cancellation Full Story

(ReggaeVibeMedia.com) – Now that we’ve given time for the rumors to circulate, and the speculations to go around, I Ahmad “Ras Mahddy” Tafari bring you the straight facts of the matter from “the horses mouth” as they say in America. For those who brought your tickets and supported the event we give thanks! Grab your popcorn and get ready, those who do promotions and shows get ready for a lesson you may may be able to avoid learning the hard way during this journey of putting together events.

I’ll start by showing you how this all came about. It all started with Port City Reggae based in Wilmington, North Carolina leading the movements, and Reggae Vibe Media based in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina assisted in bringing Stephen Marley and Friends Babylon by Bus Tour to the North Myrtle Beach Drag Strip in Longs, South Carolina Saturday August 5th, 2023. We worked with the owners of the North Myrtle Beach Drag Strip also to try make this the best experience possible for patrons.

For those who don’t know Port City Reggae is a well established promotional company bringing some of the most popular Reggae entertainers to the Port City Wilmington, North Carolina. Grammy nominated Etana, Inner Circle, Steel Pulse, Grammy Award Winning Artist Sean Paul and Collie Buddz just to name a few of the acts that Port City has worked with successfully in the past. The resume is no joke with 30+ years in the business they have proven to be able to handle a show of this magnitude. With the support of Reggae Vibe Media with 25+ years experience supporting events such as these, this promotion was in the hands of a great team of people.

The stage Friday night in Longs, SC North Myrtle Beach Drag Strip

With that said now let’s get into the facts of the matter. The stage was brought to the venue a few days ahead of the show and the actual setup began Friday. We stopped by that same night to checkout everything and it all looked good to us. Saturday morning we arrived to the venue and the sound system was crisp, the stage was looking good to us, and the weather was perfect for a festival. As the early volunteers started to arrive, the two buses full of the Marley team pulled into the venue arriving from Asheville, North Carolina where they had performed the night before.

A few members of the team unloaded from the buses and the road manager and a few members of the band stepped out to start sorting out the details for sound check.

The introductions were made and the road manager began to checkout the stage. As we all stood looking at the stage he began to notice a few things that were sketchy about the construction. To those of us who are not educated in the construction of stages we did not happen to notice these details. The overall concerns were the proper improper balancing, the support, and stability of the stage. Please keep in mind that all the necessary requirements for the stage as requested by Stephen Marley’s team was forwarded to the stage company within a reasonable amount of time prior to them bringing the stage to the venue.

exhibit (A)

First of all if you look at the photo exhibit (A) those are wood pieces stacked up supporting the rear of the stage. Which should not have been used. Anything could have simply knocked out one of those pieces of wood and the support of the stage would be compromised. There were at least five of these setup the same way supporting the entire rear of the stage. There was also the added weight to the rear by a super tower holding a very heavy, and hot lighting system.

Exhibit (C)

Speaking of the lighting system and the super tower, the stage crew had rigged up some makeshift support that clearly would not be able to support the weight of the super tower if the heat were too cause the support to be compromised in anyway. Look it the photo entitled exhibit (C) there’s a small cable with a clip wrapped around the steel of the super tower. The clip itself is not very strong. If it needed to support that kind of weight it would easily bend, or snap.

The next issue was the top half of the stage not being stable. The top steel portion of the stage was sitting on the mobile trailer supported by only two cables on each side. Now anyone with good common sense can see if the stage got a certain amount of wind the top is going to catch  the roof tarp like a sail on a boat, which could cause the steel pillars to shift, causing the cables to snap creating a very dangerous situation for the artist on stage.

Exhibit (B)

It would have worked better if they put the steel pillars on the ground, and made them taller as you can see in photo exhibit (B).

When the issues with the integrity of the stage were brought to the attention of the owner of Rolling Stages he tried to get us to trust his word that the stage was safe by naming all the people who had hired him in the past, and naming names of shows he’s done with the stage in the past, but as good ol’ Jamaican’s say Rae, Rae, Rae. It all meant nothing if the stage had no engineering documentation to show any kinda liability to the road manager.

This is what ultimately decided the fate of the show. After a bunch of discussion with different people involved in the decision making for the Marley team. it came down to one deciding factor in this whole matter. They were willing to perform on the stage if the stage owner could show any engineering documentation demonstrating some liability on his behalf.

When we simply asked the owner of Rollin Stages for engineering documentation for the stage he gave us excuses. The first excuse was it was in his email so he then spent close to an hour in his truck looking through emails. The next excuse was he had the documents at his house. He never went home and got them if he did have them in the first place.

After more time had passed the stage owner could not provide the documentation to show his stage was safe, or any liability in anyway, so that was the main cause for the cancellation.

The show has been rescheduled for a time in October. It’s going to be a different kinda of show, with a different kinda vibe so the venue may change. The lineup may also be a little different so stay tuned. The main photo is to show he actually showed up in Longs, South Carolina, and was very humble and willing to work around rescheduling the show. Again on behalf of everyone involved in bringing these events together we appreciate all those who supported and we hope to see you again in October.