Getting a great user experience from Kingston On The Edge

Kingston On The Edge brings a vibrant energy to the city’s art and music this week as it has done in the past two years. The brand is bigger now, and seems set to become a permanent fixture in the life of Kingston.

This week a packed schedule of entertainment and art showings will keep the young and the hip busy as venues all over town get involved (See Schedule on this page). There is Dance on the Edge at Philip Sherlock Centre, Gallery Hop at Revolution, Bolivar and Mutual galleries.

There is a film night at Red Bones a second Red Rubberband Mural project and an artist open house in Stony Hill.

Over last weekend the activities were as diverse as they were engaging; from painting a community mural at Gully Side near to Heroes Circle to being entertained by a Polish band playing Jewish music. From Spontaneous Theatre at Ashanti in Hope Gardens to an Open Mike concert and fete at Grovesnor Galleries. All events got enthusiastic support and it is clear the audience for KOTE is building.

The opening at Red Bones brought out the curious and the initiated. With a mix of art, music and film (Why Jamaicans Run So Fast), the venue was transformed from a quiet blues café to an entertainment centre that was buzzing with excitement.

Artworks decorated the huge lawn and the band Gas Money fired up a lively crowd that packed the courtyard, bar and restaurant. There was standing room only for the documentary on Jamaican athletics by Miguel Galofre.

It is now clear that there is a huge audience for all the cultures that are comfortably at home in Kingston. And the organizers must be praised for putting it all on the edge.

If rituals are activities we create around events that to make them richer and give them deeper meaning, then KOTE deserves to become an annual ritual that adds luster to Kingston.