WeBeat honors Earl Crosby

Since the inception of WeBeat St James Live in 2001, this year will be the first occasion on which the festival will be staged without its chairman, Earl Cros­by, who passed away in August 2016.

“It is a strange feeling to be plan­ning this year’s event without Earl,” said long-standing WeBeat commit­tee member Angela Fox. “The fes­tival’s success over the years was large­ly due to his untiring ef­forts, and res­olute willingness to forge ahead, despite the many challenges he faced during that time. So we are doing this year’s activities in his honour, even though the problems are still there.”

Crosby, who had undergone se­rious health issues a few months before last year’s staging, had this to say at the opening: “Because of my health condition, members of the committee undertook all responsi­bility for producing this year’s event, and faced even greater challenges than in past years in getting sponsors to buy into this programme that has proven its worth for over 15 years.”

The WeBeat St James Live festi­val was developed to promote the community of St James which, due to its all-day, all-night activities, is dubbed the “city that never sleeps.” The festival provides a platform to showcase the talents of local artistes while highlighting the contribution of people who have been pivotal in the development of St James and, by extension, the wider community. A most apt phrase to describe this fes­tival is ‘collective responsibility’ for within the perimeter of the rhyth­mic, are the social responsibilies of health, environment, and rewards.