Fiyah brings Sizzla for year end Syzygy Festival
Get ready, Bermuda.
Fiyah Marshall has brought together an “all-star” line-up of soca and reggae artists for Syzygy Festival, an end-of-year concert at The Shed in Dockyard.
Sizzla, Bunji Garlin, Orlando Octave and Izac King are among the headliners who have signed up for the show.
They will be joined in the old America’s Cup Village by “some of Bermuda’s best” entertainers.
“It’s a music festival, a way for me to give back to Bermuda,” said Marshall, a reggae singer whose company, Hot Fiyah Sounds Entertainment, is organising the show with Vas Productions.
“People can expect a new experience, something never seen here before — an amazing line-up celebrating the best of all-star soca and reggae artists, as well as some of Bermuda’s best talent.”
The entertainer got the idea while performing with Jamaican superstar reggae Sizzla and other artists in several cities on the East Coast of the United States last summer. “Fiyah Marshall is a dear friend of ours,” said Vas Productions’ Vychalle Singh. “Basically, he came up with the idea. He said Bermuda has been craving something like this for a very long time.
“Our goal is to do a quality event. Vas, being an international organisation based in Atlanta and with footholds in the Caribbean, is very competent in the way we design and deliver and we’re trying to bring that top quality to Bermuda, something people can look forward to every year. Everybody is super excited.”
The December 29 show will be one of the first held at the Dockyard site since the 2017 America’s Cup.
“It’s the way I get my kicks, my pleasure and how I enjoy my life,” Marshall said of his decision to hold the event. “What I thrive on is doing things the average person can’t comprehend. For me, it’s always ‘go big or go home’. I do the unimaginable, the incomprehensible, things other people can’t do. It’s fun.
“Anything in the entertainment industry — whether it’s music or one of the other companies I have — I like to give 100 per cent to it and create amazing things. It’s Bermuda’s largest purpose-built indoor concert venue. It’s soundproofed; it has a stage. People don’t have to worry about what to do if it’s too cold or it rains. And it can house 4,000-plus people.
“The night will begin our legacy. We’re planning to do it annually. We’re holding it on the last Saturday of the year so we can end 2018 on a high note, with the experience of a lifetime.”
A ferry service will run between Hamilton and Dockyard to “encourage people not to drink and drive”.
Marlon Asher, Rasta Rockstar and Pressure Busspipe will also headline the concert, as will Marshall himself. “They are ecstatic to be here,” he said. “It most definitely is not going to be your average concert, it will be a musical extravaganza. I toured with these guys, we did 13 cities together in 2017. It was nuts.
“It will make the ultimate Christmas present for a lot of people. In this day and age, people are more into experiences than material things. Unlike a bike that you can buy and in two years you’ve outgrown, this you can remember all your life.
“It’s also a chance for younger people to see great artists and learn about the culture of soca and reggae and for us to show off our local talent.”
• Follow @hotfiyahentertainment and @syzygyfestival on Instagram. A dub plate session is scheduled for Friday, December 28, the night before the Syzygy Festival. Local sounds can register at hotfiyahsounds@gmail.com. Early bird tickets for the concert — $75 general admission; $150 VIP — are available now at www.ptix.bm/syzygy