I attended the 2012 Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival last weekend and had an AMAZING time! Got to work with some great people who made an excellent team, I learned a lot and had a fantastic experience watching the performance. Here I present my top 5 highlights of the 3-day experience.

Jully Black - Amazon Woman

5. Jully Black’s Performance
I had no clue who Jully Black was before she was announced on the line-up of the festival. When I started researching her, I found one song by her that I really loved – Running. So I thought there would be at least one song I would enjoy from her performance, but she came on stage and blew it apart! She was the first performer on Friday night so she had to warm up the crowd which, in my opinion, is not the best job to have. She was on fire! For someone fairly unknown to the crowd, she had them rocking, dancing and singing along. I’m sure Jamaica will remember Jully Black’s name after this.

4. The Charmin Bathroom Experience
I bet you would have never expected anyone to commented on an awesome bathroom experience at a crowded stadium event, but I simply must! Thanks to the Charmin and Bounty team, everyone was able to feel comfortable about having to go. You can read more details on that on my Branded blog here.

Social Bugz | SteadyImage Multimedia

3. Social Bugz/Steady Image Team
As previously mentioned, my priority at the festival was work – not just enjoyment. Luckily for me, I have the best job in the world. Not only did I get to work with a great team, all of whom are passionate about what they do and creating the best experience for the patrons and audience – we worked very well together, feeding off each other’s energies and endorsing each other’s strengths. My other favourite thing about my work is that it involves me sharing in the audience experience so I had to mix and mingle with the crowd and watch the show to do an effective job. (You’re totally jealous, I know). Thanks to Rachel, Toni, Tanaka, Amanda and Sean for a memorable weekend!

Celine Dion at Jamaica Jazz

2. Celine Dion’s Performance
Honestly, I thought this would be number 1. This was the main reason I wanted to be at Jazz Fest. I absolutely love Celine and I wanted to see her perform very badly. Now, don’t get my wrong, she was absolutely terrific. I was singing along with most songs and she has this stage presence that just can’t be matched. Plus, her 4 outfit changes throughout the night, plus performing ‘Treat Her Like A Lady’ with Diana King and the fact that I got to see her perform twice (sound check early in the day) made it a fantastic experience. But the most unexpected thing topped that…

Stephen Marley - Sure knows how to win over a girl...

1. Singing on Stephen Marley’s Mic
First of all, take your dirty minds out of the gutter. Second of all, OMGEEEEEE!!! I wasn’t even looking forward to Damian Marley’s performance really but for some reason I ended up right in front of the stage when he began (maybe because he was the final performance) and JUNIOR GONG TOOK LIFE!!! He was energetic and vibrant and everybody, including me, sang along with all his songs. Then he brought out Stephen, his brother and the combination was just perfect! But then, as if it couldn’t get better, during their performance of ‘The Mission’, Stephen did the back and forth audience singing thing and he put his mic right at me and smiled! Woiii! My heart nearly flew away with that 3 second gesture. I am a fan forever. Call me the latest Stephen Marley groupie because….wow!

Anyways, that was my first Jamaica Jazz experience and I will definitely be going back, hopefully to work again because event planning/management gives me life.

Did you attend or follow the event through social media? Do you agree with my list? What would you add or change? I would love to know!