Dream Weekend expands to 'Dream Week'

The popular Dream Weekend party series will be expanding its wings for 2012, as they extend their series of parties from four to six days in August.

Dream Weekend will now be taking place from Wednesday, August 1- Monday, August 6 in Negril. The party series is now in its fourth year and according to Dream Team member and promoter Kamal Bankay, expansion was always part of the vision. He said, "Assuming everything goes well we always wanted to keep growing and expanding more and more which is what we've done by extending the weekend to six days."

Last year, the party series hosted eight events in four days. While not disclosing how many events the extended weekend would have, Bankay says more events would be added to the package. He added, "We always hoped to move towards what we're doing now and we're fortunate that this year the holidays fell in a particular way. This year we're looking to add different kinds of events to fill out the total entertainment experience and also to revamp some of the events we currently have."

As to whether there will be a drastic increase in the price to accommodate the new events, Bankay said, "The price actually will be determined by the level of sponsorship. Our event is patron focused, so we will always keep our patrons in mind." He disclosed that the Dream Team will be in discussion with hoteliers in Negril to provide package deals for the event, to give incentives to patrons to stay for all six days.

Bankay also said the Dream Team were excited to see the Government taking a good stance when it comes to highlighting entertainment as a part of the tourism sector. He noted that last year the number of foreign visitors for Dream Weekend increased and hopes that the expansion of the event would draw more of that crowd. In 2011 the event was launched locally as well as in New York and Miami.

"It's important to note that Dream is going to embrace the 50th celebration, we plan to be part of the celebration of independence," he said.

The Dream Team will also be premiering the docu-reality series 'Dream Destination: Jamaica' on International cable stations in February or March. The series will show clips of last year's staging and more. It is being done by director Mykal Cushnie and Kibwe McGann.

Source: Jamaica Star