Rumours squashed - Freedom Street organiser sets record straight about Black Friday sale

Freedom Street organiser Joe Bogdanovich has dismissed claims that Vybz Kartel was forced to slash ticket prices for his New Year's Eve concert due to sluggish sales.

Kartel recently announced that bleachers tickets, originally priced at US$125, would be reduced to approximately US$60 as part of a Black Friday sale.

"A nuff people did a say, 'Kartel di ticket dem too dear', and so for that weekend only, they will get half off," he said at a recent press conference.

Despite this announcement, some sceptics speculated that low ticket sales were linked to Kartel's endorsement of the People's National Party (PNP) and his appearance at the party's annual conference in September. Bogdanovich, however, has brushed off those suggestions.

Freedom Street, which will be held at the National Stadium, will be the Fever hitmaker's first concert performance in 14 years. It is been organised in partnership with DownSound Entertainment, for which Bogdanovich is the CEO.

"I don't think it had anything to do with that at all - that's as far away as you can get from the truth. He (Kartel) just wants to support 'Gaza Nation', and he knows what it is like to be coming from challenging places, and he didn't want his fans to miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see him back for the very first time anywhere in the world and that's why he did it," Bogdanovich told THE WEEKEND STAR.

"He said, I wanna give back to my people', and it's purely positive, supportive fan base appreciation [who] have stuck with him through [thick] and thin, and he's just happy to be out and getting so much love from everybody out there, and he's giving it back," Bogdanovich added.

Kartel, in a recent social media post, said his allegiance is to the people of Jamaica, regardless of party affiliation.

"Mi is a artiste first and a businessman next, and Isat (Buchanan) is a friend a mine and Daryl Vaz is a friend a mine, suh don't get the thing twisted, a one Jamaica mi seh... ," the Unstoppable deejay stated.

Buchanan, an attorney-at-law who was instrumental in securing Kartel's release from prison in July, has been selected to represent the PNP in Portland Eastern in the next general election due by next September. That seat is currently held by the Jamaica Labour Party's Ann-Marie Vaz, the wife of Daryl Vaz.