Kingston’s music and entertainment scene is experiencing a post-COVID renaissance. I call it Kingston 2.0—a vibrant era of change, disruption, and bold new energy. At the heart of it? A growing, buzzworthy house music scene that’s carving out its own space in the culture. (More on that soon.)
But right now, there’s a fresh challenge underway—to rebrand and reimagine Sundays in Kingston. And it’s manifesting in the form of a Sunday night House Music Circuit—a night of movement across the city where you can experience different styles of electronic dance music, all in one evening. Thanks to five innovative new event promoters, Kingston Town is starting to sound and feel very different.
Generally, on the music/entertainment scene, Sundays in Kingston belonged to Dub…Kingston Dub Club to be exact. A very red, green, and gold Dub music experience on Skyline Drive in Jack’s Hill. It’s in a house with a maze of stairs, leading down to first, a dance floor flanked by a big, loud and colorful sound system with a bass to shake the hairs off your skin, a small stage where the founder DJs and guest Dub Selectas hold people in a trance till late, late in the night. You can dance there or go down more steps to the landing, with a panoramic view, a bar, a gift shop, benches, food, drinks, and weed.
Kingston Dub Club is an institution, a pilgrimage by locals and visitors. That Sunday Night Must Do, Go, See vibe is being challenged, by this current and super aggressive wave of House Music Culture. The Land of Reggae has fallen in love with Electronic Dance Music, especially Afrohouse.
A fresh batch of DJs and event promoters have entered the chat, and here’s what’s on.
Euphoric
Euphoric started its vibe just under a year ago and is curated by that house music Women DJ Duo, HeadBopHerz – that’s one part Jamaican, Entrepreneur & Fame 95’s DJLava and Canadian/Jamaica DJLytes Mix Engineer/Producer/Remixer/DJ to Music Stars like Coldplay, Sean Paul, Shaggy, Drake.
This Sunday, they’re diving deep into the sounds of Afro Tech & Deep Soulful House with @flutegroovemusicja & HeadBop Herz setting the vibe. At this always-free so far event, they said to expect Hypnotic beats, soulful rhythms, and pure euphoria. 🎶✨They are currently based at Regency Bar & Lounge | Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel and are from 6 pm-11 pm.
Sunday House
Sunday House started as a weekly open format kinda night at the PJ Wright-led TacBar restaurant venue at Devon House. Recently, Wendell Richards, owner of the 18-month-old Elektric Bangaz EDM Event Series, took over curating an actual House Music weekly event.
With a steady rotation of local DJs who are known for their House Music DJ status and others who are new and testing their chops, he’s been creating concepts that mash up and match up Dancehall, Soca, Oontz, Fonts alongside AfroHouse. It’s a strategy to please true fans and to entice the curious to become full-on House Music converts. Sunday House happens weekly from 6 PM – 12 AM and charges $1000 for people listed and $2000 for those who are not.
Sunday Night Sets
Sunday Night Sets is curated by @sundaynightcrew an electronic music collective led by Alex. They’ve boldly said, that their event series is about shaping the Future of House Music in Jamaica. They say they want it to be a place where house music lovers unite. They did their first event last Sunday, Downtown Kingston at Kamila’s Kitchen with recently Jamaica-based French DJ Romain “Sherkhan” Chiffre, who has his own brand Electric Entourage that has been doing micro events by Wickie Wackie Beach in St Thomas. Their events usually have a $2,500 ticket price.
Bassment
Bassment was just launched last week by Garel, also known as DJ WRavus. His event brand is Transcend Productions– which has positioned itself as the home of the Underground House music in Jamaica. 🖤Techno 🖤 Dub Techno 🖤 Deep House 🖤 Minimal 🖤 Tech House. He starts a new weekly Saturday house music vibe on April 12th, “for the real ones who love deep, underground sounds. Expect raw energy, proper techno/house music, and nothing but vibes.” But he kicks off a free, teaser event this Sunday, 5 pm-9 pm at the space beneath Medusa Bar Off Hope Road, called Que Rico.
I’ve asked some of the DJ/Event promoters why they’ve selected Sundays for their events. I mean, aren’t Sundays about beach, brunch, and getting ready for work, business, or school Monday morning? Clearly not. They all want to reshape what Sunday Music Entertainment looks like. I’m here for it.
As a House Head, I’m excited to see how much of a challenge House Music Culture will be to the current Dub Music. It’s very early days, they are all new event promoters, but they are assertive, experimenting, and iterating. Let’s see who wins over local and international audiences, flies in international DJs, builds a profitable event business inside this US$ 12.3 billion global electronic music market, and stays true to their love of House Music.
