The 2026 BZR WKND was supposed to end with the biggest weekend Kingston has seen in years. For some ticket holders, it has not ended at all, because they are still waiting for their money.

Refunds for the cancelled Sunday concert were promised to begin on Monday, October 19, according to ticket holders who spoke with Jamroc Nation. Today is November 4, and several say not a dollar has come back.

“I bought two tickets. They say refund processing start October 19 and up to now, nothing. Every time you message them is a different story,” one ticket holder told Jamroc Nation.

Another was blunter: “Is like the money gone. Nobody can tell us anything straight.”

A Lawyer Asks Whether Cardi B Was Ever Booked

Kingston attorney and former Member of Parliament Ronald Thwaites has added institutional weight to the questions. Writing after the debacle, Thwaites said that having bought the story of Cardi B headlining Jamaica’s first urban festival, he sought to verify whether she was ever booked and, by his account, was told by agents in Florida and New York that they had no record of any engagement of Cardi B in Jamaica.

“Crass false advertising of entertainment events must attract strong condemnation and sanctions,” Thwaites wrote.

Jamroc Nation has not independently verified Thwaites’ account of those agent conversations, and the organisers have not publicly answered the booking question. What is documented is the trail of cancellations and the refund promise that followed.

How The Night Fell Apart

BZR WKND, billed as Jamaica’s first urban music festival, ran October 9 to 11 at the National Stadium and venues across Kingston, produced by Solid Agency and The Ultimate Weekend. Shenseea delivered on opening night, and Stars R Us, the vintage segment, drew strong reviews. But by Sunday, the festival’s closing concert was in trouble.

In the days before the finale, word spread that headline act Cardi B had not been paid in full, and on October 11 the organisers confirmed she was no longer set to perform. Patrons who turned up found a short show: local support acts, no international closer, and headliner Rick Ross only via video link for a fifteen-minute set that some attendees timed at closer to seven. By the end, patrons were booing, and the police shut the show down before 11 p.m.

What Happens Next

The money question has teeth beyond the weekend itself. Promoters live on trust, and a refund dispute playing out in slow motion puts every future buyer on notice. Demands keep going to the promoters to put the money back where it belongs, in the public’s pockets, and to account for how an event of this scale reached the end with neither a headliner nor a plan that held.

Jamroc Nation has reached out to the BZR WKND organisers for comment on the refund timeline, on Ticket holders’ reports that no refunds have been processed since October 19, and on attorney Ronald Thwaites’ questions about the Cardi B booking. This story will be updated if they respond.

Nation, say it plain: should promoters be made to post refund bonds before they can sell a single ticket?

Photo: A drone view of BZR WKND at the National Stadium in Kingston, from the organisers’ official gallery