The organizers of ATI, have etched the ATI experience of fun, frolic and wild abandon in the minds of Jamaicans and visiting patrons. The ATI story of ten years however is a story of refinement and perfection. The now coveted party event was born out of a need to stage the perfect event, in a perfect setting, with perfect outcomes.
Alex Chin, a promoter involved in the ATI party weekend recalls that the absolute concept was arrived at using Brand Jamaica as the platform. Jamaica has given the world many absolutes; absolute athletes, absolute thinkers, absolute vacations and so much more. Using this concept, they dreamed of another type of absolute. They wanted to create the Absolute party experience.
The ATI team worked at the concept, which was the brainchild of Alex Chin, and it finally became a reality in the summer of 2001 when a group of young promoters hosted for the first time Absolute Temptation Isle, ATI. It was the hosting of several events over three days during the Jamaican Independence holiday season in Negril Jamaica. The promoters combined the forces of several of Jamaica’s best party promoters to put out a novel concept in the party industry, one which apparently had cured the craving of their friends from across the globe and Jamaica’s party population.
The recipe for this formula was 18 hours of partying with 6 hours of sleep, spread out over three days during the Holiday weekend in the most idyllic spot in the Western Hemisphere, Negril, Jamaica. This innovative concept set a precedent which undoubtedly caused many to gravitate towards, and even attempted to replicate. However, with each staging of the event, the concept is reinvented so that ATI remains the premier weekend party experience.
Negril has now evolved into the party mecca of Jamaica, and over the ten years, the Appleton Temptation Isle event has exploded from 6,000 patrons in 2001 to over 20,000 in 2008.
The team is not resting with these numbers, and it still setting its eyes on bringing this party experience to the rest of the world. Over the years, the founding promoters has been sharing this conceptual genesis with other party promoters from Atlanta, Florida and Kingston with the fruits to be borne later.
With this in mind, we take a look at the party over the years:
Year 2001
Parties – Stages – 14 hours, Bikini & Shorts, Beach Bums, Crave, and Jungle after parties.
Year 2002
Title Sponsor: Appleton Jamaica Rum
Parties -Welcome Party, Crave, Bon Fire, Stages, Bikini & Shorts, and 4 Jungle Parties.
Year 2003
Title Sponsor: Appleton Jamaica Rum
Parties -Stages, Flirt, Jungle Nights, Bikini & Shorts, Fully Loaded and Appletini.
Year 2004
Date: August 5 – 8
Title Sponsor: Appleton Jamaica Rum
Parties -Temptation, Beach Bums, First Fridays, KFC Summer Hotshots, Ripple Effects, Bikini & Martinis, Stages, Colours, Atlantis and Flirt.
Year 2005
Date: July 29 – August 1
Title Sponsor: Appleton Jamaica Rum
Parties -First Fridays, Tempted, Beach Bums, Stages, Colours, Wild Sides, Temptation Live Summer Shots, Ripple Effect, Extatiq Pretty in Pink, Bikini & Shorts and White Knights.
Year 2006
Date: July 28 – August 1
Major Sponsor: Digicel & Smirnoff Vodka
Parties -First Fridays, Tempted, Stages, Colours, Wild Sides, Extatiq Pretty in Pink, Soul Food, Smirnoff, Temperature, DayDreams, Temptation Live, BET Celebrity After Party, Bikini & Shorts, Fusion, Free Entry into the Jungle.
Absolute Temptation Isle brought on board a new title sponsor namely Red Stripe, out of this partnership was born Red Stripe Temptation Isle “RTI”.
Year 2007
Date: August 3– August 6
Title Sponsor: Red Stripe
Associate Sponsor: Digicel
Parties -Tempted, Jungle Madness, DayDreams, Stages, Colours, Temptation Live I, Wild Sides, Pretty in Pink, Temptation Live II, Fusion, and Fever.
Year 2008
Date: July 31 – August 3
Title Sponsor: Red Stripe
Associate Sponsor: Flow
Parties -Tempted, Day Dreams, Pretty in Pink, Temptation Live I, Stage, Colours, Temptation Live II, Wild Sides and Fusion.
Year 2009
Date: August 5-9
Title Sponsor: Appleton Jamaica Rum
Parties -Stages, Wildsides, Pretty in Pink, Joker’s Wild Colours, Tempted, Rhythm and Booze and Hip Hop J’Ouvert.
ATI is one of the summer’s most anticipated and celebrated party series, held in Negril Westmoreland. The series of parties pulls thousands of Jamaicans and overseas visitors together in party unity, with each party bearing a distinct theme and flavour.
ATI begins in 22 days, see you in Negril from July 30 to August 02.
