The annual staging of the Portland Jerk Festival was held on July 05, 2009. The ten years old event was jam packed with family filled-fun. Under favorable weather the crowd of 20,000 began entering the grounds of Folly Ruins, Port Antonio as early as 11 a.m.
Although the Jerk was what the crowd craved, the high point of the festival was definitely the stage show. Judy Mowatt, gospel artiste, brought the crowd alive and had them singing and praising God. Raising Stars contestants Romaine Virgo and Cameal Davis also performed. Leroy Gibbons had the crowd begging for more and performed hits such as Samfy Girl and Four Season Lover. Queen Ifrica also was in attendance and set the crowd lyrically ablaze with hits such as Baby, Overall and Daddy.
Tony Rebel came on stage shortly after 10 p.m. and further added to the frenzy the crowd was in. The crowd was moved by hits such as Fresh Vegetable, Just Friends, Chatty Chatty, Sweet Jam Dung and One Day.
When the main act for the night graced the stage it began to drizzle. However, no one left has they wanted to see Elephant “The Energy God” Man perform. Sporting his traditional colourful hairstyle, he brought a carnival atmosphere to the jerk festival with hits such as Gully Creeper, Nuh Linga and Higher Level.
The crowd was certainly satisfied by time the festival came to an end at approximately 11:30 p.m. CEO of the festival, Kasey Bourne said that there was room for improvement to the festival.
