This 2005 Memorial Day Weekend was a Beres Hammond and Friends weekend in South Florida. A mixed crowd of West Palm Beach area Reggae fans were truly in for a treat.

First stop was the Meyer Ampitheatre in picturesque downtown West Palm Beach, and South Florida had the opportunity on a drizzly Saturday afternoon to see a sample of the famous Harmony House entourage, as well as promising South Florida based Reggae acts like Binghi Bob, who gave a good account of himself with popular songs like “B.I.B.L.E.”. To showcase the diversity of Caribbean music, Haitian Compas group Zenglen performed well singing rousing hits from their album “Nou La Jere Ti Sa A”.

On his annual tour, Beres uses the opportunity to showcase the up and coming talents that he is grooming for the long and arduous road ahead. One such person was Jimmy Cozier, an unknown artist to South Florida who sang with passion, depth, and intensity being backed up by The Harmony House Band, who played with lots of energy and vigour; which the crowd responded to warmly.

Also on this tour was “The Queen of Reggae” Empress Marcia Griffiths, who with her 41 years of valuable experience, sang a sample of some of her famous songs like “Back In The Days”, “I Shall Sing”, plus tracks of her album “Shining Time” including several traditional Bob Marley renditions that had the Meyer Ampitheatre crowd dancing along.

During a minor set change before Beres’s performance, the rain began to drizzly slowly, but the crowd retreated to the food stalls to seek shelter as no-one was going anywhere as “The Main Man” hadn’t performed yet. The rain stopped when Beres took the stage, and the crowd ran back into the center of the Ampitheatre as they were ready to get their groove on. Beres sang many of his hits like “Step Aside”, “Tempted To Touch”, “Double Trouble” and many others. Unfortunately when the rain showers increased, it meant that Beres didn’t get the opportunity to perform any of the tracks from his current album “Love Has No Boundaries” for his West Palm Beach fans.

The same line-up headed upto Fort Pierce, which is approximately 3 hours north of Miami 2 days later, and weather-wise enjoyed better conditions than West Palm. Veteran Reggae crooner Tinga Stewart had the crowd rocking as he sung a medley of his current and past hits from yester-year.

Starting off in West Palm Beach on Saturday, crossing over to St. Petersburg on Florida’s West Coast, then criss-crossing back to Fort Pierce, gave Florida Reggae fans 3 opportunities to catch the “Love Has No Boundaries” tour at its best. It provided Reggae fans rain or shine, with the opportunity to hear Jamaica’s premiere male and female talent in Beres Hammond and Marcia Griffiths, plus also upcoming talent and unknown Jimmy Cozier. Judging by this weekend’s performances, the future is looking bright.

Related Links:

• Beres Hammond - Hall of Fame
• Reggae on the Hill w Beres - Barbados