Flow, Jamaicansmusic.com Happy with Jamaica’s First Earth Hour Concert

At approximately 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 23, Jamaicans officially marked 'Earth Hour' by releasing 100 lanterns in the sky at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre.

More than 1000 patrons came out to a free acoustic 'Earth Hour' concert hosted by Jamaicansmusic.com in association with Jamaica Tourist Board, Jamaica Cultural Development Commission and telecoms company Flow.

Earth Hour is an annual global event organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), which asks people to turn off non-essential lights for one hour starting at 8:30 p.m. in an attempt to support conservation efforts.

Jamaicans who turned out for the country’s first Earth Hour Concert at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre on Saturday, March 23, release 100 lanterns in the sky to commemorate the event.  Earth Hour is an annual global event organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), which asks people to turn off non-essential lights for one hour starting at 8:30 p.m. in an attempt to support conservation efforts. The Jamaica Tourist Board, Jamaica Cultural Development Commission and telecoms company Flow threw their support behind the event which saw over 1000 patrons.

"I came to see the outstanding line-up of artistes, enjoy some good vibes and support this worthy cause," said patron Allison Barrett "We are a small island and we need to do our part to protect our environment, so I will always support events such as this that are geared towards conservation."

Denise Williams, executive director of Corporate Communications at Columbus Communications Jamaica Limited, operators of Flow and Columbus Business Solutions, said that she was pleased to be associated with the movement.  "Conservation is everybody's business.  We do our best at Flow to live the green message, our main office at the Courtleigh Auditorium is a smart office in which, all our lights, water and air conditioning units are automated.  Additionally, we encourage our staff to participate in annual national labour day projects geared at cleaning up public spaces and we have implemented a newspaper recycling initiative," said Williams.

The executive director also spoke about the 'I Will If You Will' component of Earth Hour. 'Basically, we've joined the rest of the world in this exciting challenge which prompts people to start an environmentally conscious action. We are challenging Jamaica to go paperless.  Our president and coo, Michele English has committed to participating in a friendly race with a Track and Field Olympic Medallist if 2000 people switch to Flow's paper less billing."  The idea is to encourage people to adopt small measures for big impact.  A paperless bill saves paper, energy and resources.  

Other top Jamaican artistes have also joined in on the 'I Will If You Will' challenge.  Artistes such as Shaggy, Tami Chynn and Wayne Marshall, have also committed themselves to specific Earth Hour Challenges.

Alex Morrisey, CEO of Jamaicansmusic.com could not have asked for better support. "All in all it was a great show, for a worthy cause.  By 8 p.m. there were no seats left and additionally, many of the artistes rearranged their schedules so that they could perform here tonight to signify their commitment.  We are definitely looking to grow this local movement and make it into a bigger calendar event for Jamaicans, as we want to make sure that conservation is at the top of everybody's priority list."

Artistes such as Protégé, Jesse Royal, Keida and bands such as Blue Grass in The Sky, Black as Cole and Rootz Underground were among the highlights of the night.

Earth Hour originally started in Australia but has since become a global movement. Jamaica is the latest Caribbean country to join neighbours such as Belize and Aruba.