Grange Says Jamworld Will Be ‘Best Venue In Hemisphere’ Under Her Ministry

Entertainment Minister Olivia “Babsy” Grange has announced that Jamworld Entertainment Complex, the original home of the Sting stage show, is now the property of her Ministry, and will be up and running for the 2023 staging of the show.

This year’s staging of Sting, dubbed the Greatest One-night Show on Earth, will be held at the Grizzly’s Plantation Cove in St. Ann, this after a seven-year absence.

But, according to Grange, who is a former manager for Shabba Ranks, Bounty Killer and Patra, next year December, Jamworld will be a far cry from the derelict state it is in at present, and will be one of the best entertainment venues in the Western Hemisphere, as her Ministry has full control of the 70 acres of land which make up the venue.

“Sting will be going to Ocho Rios; it will be going to a venue that has itself, built its name.  But before I go, I have good news for you…  A few weeks ago, I got a letter from the National Land Agency – and I had made representation about two years ago for the Ministry of Culture, Gender,  Entertainment and Sport, to get possession of Jamworld.  Well, I can tell you all tonight, that I am now in the possession of the deed, right of possession of land,” she stated during her address at the launch of the event on Tuesday night at the Jamaica Pegasus in New Kingston.

“We are I now in possession of Jamworld at the Ministry, which will be built out as one of the greatest entertainment complex that you will find in this Hemisphere.   And so, the home of Sting will once more be Jamworld,” Grange added.

She continued: “But for this year, I want you all to turn out in your  numbers.  But I want you to make sure that the friendly rivalry which started Sting will continue; that we go there as one people with one love; it will be incident-free and it will be great entertainment.”

In an interview with Pelpa Time TV following her address, the St. Catherine Central Member of Parliament said that measures are now being taken to put plans and designs in place in order to get the monetary support approved by the Ministry of Finance.

“I can’t say much more, except we have now taken possession of the property and we are going to clear the area.  Sting was held there with just the basic infrastructure.  We are going to upgrade the basic infrastructure so that we can start using it again,” she explained. 

“And then we are working on designs; we are working on putting together the things that are necessary to take to the Public Investment Committee of the Ministry of Finance and then overtime we will build out the entertainment complex to be one of the best in Jamaica,” the Minister added.

In March this year, during a sitting of the Jamaican Parliament’s Standing Finance Committee, Grange had disclosed that permission had been granted by the minister with responsibility for lands, for her ministry to take possession of Jamworld.   At the time she had said that her Ministry would be “seeking to do the necessary infrastructure work to formally establish Jamworld as an entertainment zone”.

Prior to that, in January 2020, The Star had reported that Jamworld, “was sitting, idle, vandalised and overrun with shrubs and bushes”  and that while a “solid stage still exists, and the ticket area still stands firm”, the buildings that housed the entertainers backstage and the ‘money room’ had suffered severely at the hands of looters.

Promoter of Sting, Isiah Laing had also told the tabloid that Sting could not be held anywhere in the Corporate Area except at JamWorld or the National Stadium, otherwise he would have to take the show “out of town” as the show “used to pull a magnitude of 30,000 and up”.