From Buju Banton to Vybz Kartel, Caribbean artists have been reaching new heights within the reside music leisure sector this 12 months, with a number of of the most important names throughout reggae, dancehall, soca and konpa graduating to arena-headlining standing. Along with his forthcoming ninth version of BAYO Festival on Saturday (June 28), Latin Grammy-nominated DJ and producer Michaël Brun is trying to be a part of that esteemed group.
Born out of a free, impromptu road social gathering in his residence nation of Haiti, BAYO is an annual block social gathering that has steadily grown in reputation and turnout annually. Translated to English, “bayo” means “to provide,” a worthy title for an occasion that trades on gifting diasporic communities an evening of generation-bridging musical performances and beloved native distributors. Final 12 months, Brun’s competition took over Brooklyn’s Prospect Park with a lineup that included J Balvin, Oxlade and J. Perry. One key ingredient of BAYO is that the lineup is stored a carefully guarded secret till the present begins; revelers might not know who might be soundtracking their evening forward of time, however Brun has garnered sufficient belief from them to correctly function grasp of ceremonies. This weekend, BAYO will but once more graduate to a good bigger venue: Barclays Heart.
“Round 2019, we began virtually doubling [attendance] each single 12 months, that’s when the concept to maneuver to arenas got here up,” he tells Billboard over a chai latte in Downtown Brooklyn, lower than two weeks earlier than the present. “That 12 months, we hosted BAYO for about 1,800 folks at Brooklyn Metal, so we felt that we may scale it up in the proper approach. [Grammy-winning R&B star Maxwell also made a surprise appearance that year.] We stopped for 2 years [during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic], however I stored doing it on-line, which was actually useful. Whenever you begin one thing for 20-30 folks and see it develop into the most important levels within the U.S., it’s insane, unimaginable and slightly bit scary.”
Although this 12 months marks his ninth time mounting BAYO, it’s additionally Brun’s tenth 12 months personally throwing occasions. From debuting as a self-taught digital DJ at home events in his teenage years to enjoying main festivals like Coachella and Tomorrowland, Brun has used his music abilities to consciously and deliberately construct communities across the globe. “All of the EDM stuff taught me the way to do Caribbean-specific occasions,” he says. “I’m actually grateful for that trajectory as a result of despite the fact that I didn’t know the place I used to be going on the time, looking back, it taught me lots.”
This 12 months’s BAYO Fest additionally serves as a tribute to Brun’s late mom, Sharon Andrea Lee-Brun, who handed late final 12 months after a battle with most cancers. “This was one of many final issues we spoke about earlier than she handed,” he displays. “There’s a second for her within the present that’s gonna be actually, actually particular.”
BAYO’s Barclays second additionally comes amid an upswing in Caribbean touring acts on the area stage. Dancehall king Vybz Kartel offered out two back-to-back nights at Barclays in April, and Lengthy Island’s UBS Enviornment has hosted 5 sold-out, $1 million-grossing reveals throughout 4 Caribbean genres in beneath a 12 months. As UBS has emerged as a formidable competitor to iconic NYC arenas like Barclays and Madison Sq. Backyard, Brun couldn’t resist the gravity of lastly bringing BAYO to the very venue he walks by day by day in his second hometown of Brooklyn. Nonetheless, mounting a present in a roofed area is markedly completely different from a summertime showcase in a public park. With a brand new venue comes a brand new imaginative and prescient for the competition, and Brun has taken cautious consideration to strike a steadiness between honoring the essence of BAYO whereas translating the present to an area stage.
“What’s actually cool in regards to the area — and possibly complicated for some artists — is that it’s a clean canvas,” he explains. “Inherently, whenever you [throw] a block social gathering, there’s a component of lots of issues taking place without delay. Within the area, it’s all about crafting a spectacle. In smaller scale reveals, there’s much less distance between the stage and the viewers, so we’re fascinated with how to make sure that each second of the present makes you are feeling as when you have been within the first few rows.”
With a live performance capability of 19,000, this 12 months’s BAYO lineup could have entry to a a lot bigger and extra intricate venue than previous iterations of the competition. Whereas he’s intent on protecting the stage design as a lot as a secret because the lineup, Brun does tease that he’s re-teamed with previous BAYO collaborator and Haitian artist Yaël Talleyrand and that the stage might be anchored by a theme of transportation. “Transportation is vital,” he muses. “How does that construct and inform id?”
Brun’s alluding to immigration, a very prickly matter in a metropolis like New York. Caribbean immigrants are an important a part of what makes NYC such a culturally wealthy metropolis, and elevated ICE presence in neighborhoods densely populated by Caribbean folks (like Flatbush or Crown Heights) has solely made their relationship with their metropolis extra contentious. What’s extra? Brun is mounting BAYO the very month President Trump’s travel ban, which incorporates Haiti, goes into impact.
It’s one factor to deliver a Caribbean competition to an area in lower than ten years, but it surely’s a wholly completely different factor to do throughout probably the most precarious political moments of the last decade to this point. How do you coordinate safety? What does that appear like when ICE appears to be arresting, detaining and deporting earlier than asking questions? Is it even moral to knowingly deliver these teams into the identical area?
“I’m creating secure areas that present the fantastic thing about life,” Brun says, selecting his phrases fastidiously. “I feel essentially the most highly effective strategy to share your expertise and perspective is thru one thing like a live performance, as a result of it’s very delicate. It creates a curiosity that’s real, and an attraction to one thing that’s completely different. On the one hand, you’re making a secure place for the folks of the tradition, however you’re additionally opening up a route for adversarial folks, who is perhaps working from a spot of worry. Hopefully, [those adversarial people] come to the present and their minds might be modified. That’s my view. I need to be a constructive ambassador for the issues that I really like; within the strategy of that, you create bridges.”
The Billboard-charting artist additionally burdened that BAYO has “the assist of native authorities and elements of NYPD,” which he hopes will “create a secure setting the place folks really feel comfy going out.”
Rumors proceed to swirl about this 12 months’s performers — Brun confirms “there might be some shaking,” however whether or not that’s “to the max” is but to be decided — however the ever-evolving multihyphenate is protecting his DJ abilities on the middle of his rising BAYO empire.
During the last sip of his latte, Brun proclaims: “Once I’m bringing folks out at BAYO, I see it as me DJing folks as a substitute of songs.”