Emoji Fest catering to ‘the ladies’ - D’Yani and 450 will headline

Emoji Fest will this year transform into a "ladies' fest," following the inaugural staging last year which saw an outpouring of support from mainly female patrons.

One of the party's directors, Troy Watson, told THE WEEKEND STAR that as a way of showing gratitude to the ladies for their support, he is strategically planning to "keep them overly satisfied" this year.

"Ideally, where women go, men want to go. So putting the focus and the highlight on the ladies automatically brings the men. In addition, having the tone of a beach-sexy festival just does so much better, as 'sexy' is aligned with females. So we just want to maintain that consistency, making it more about the feminine appeal [because] the reality is, ladies drive the entertainment scene," said Watson.

He noted that he specifically handpicked dancehall artistes D'Yani and 450 as the headliners because he knew they have what it takes to elevate the event to a beach-sexy festival.

"Who represents that better than a D'Yani and a 450? They are current and trendy - 450 is considered to be the hottest right now in this space so it just made sense. D'Yani is the representation of what 'all sexy' is right now -his catalogue is all about the ladies," said Watson. "I also wanted not just to give the [ladies] enough, but more than enough, and understanding the [catalogue] of these two guys is more than enough."

Though the inaugural staging was faced with several hiccups, it still amassed approximately 700 patrons, which the director said was a 'satisfactory' accomplishment. But this year, he and co-directors Sandjay Smith and Travis Bignall are looking to double that number. Emoji Fest is slated for Sunday, October 27, at the Fort Clarence Beach in St Catherine.

The even't concept is an evolution of the OMG party which the directors last held in 2019. With the aim to bring the digital emotions to "real life", the party promoters hope to combine the use of this daily communicative feature into a fun and enjoyable way while still appealing to today's audience within the party space.

"OMG is one of the many emojis [but] after a four-year break, through research and development, we came with so many different things that were referring to emojis and I said to my co-directors, 'This ain' t feeling like OMG any more, it's feeling more like several emojis'" Watson said.

"Fast-forward, Emoji Fest came about ... and we made the changes and Emoji Fest was even more marketable than OMG. And with that too, we were able to capture all the different emojis," shared Watson, he opined that the party stands out in part because of the wearable emoji helmets that are handed out. The promoter said while they only have helmets for the popular emojis that people use on a daily basis, they are planning to expand on the number for the upcoming years, so "everyone can have an opportunity to rock it, vibe and have fun with it".