Javed Ali, CEO of Slingerz Entertainment, and I, Jonathan Beepat, CEO of Wildfire Entertainment, have made a decision to merge our entertainment companies to give Guyanese a better entertainment experience for 2011. A fact that not many people may know is that we are cousins, family by blood.
We like to do entertainment as our hobbies. We both have full time businesses and jobs, but our love for entertainment motivates us to pursue the things we do. Javed Ali and Slingerz is more popular with the sound system business. That is Javed’s passion, and in his own words, he likes to go to a dance or session and see his sound playing and hold a vibes. I, on the other hand, love to put together major events and watch how everything comes together.
Our new partnership will only make things easier and better for  both of us. Now we have twice the manpower, twice the ideas, twice the capital, so it is going to be twice the niceness!
Slingerz has been around for approximately nine years and hails from the East Bank Essequibo, Vergenoegen village, to be exact. They have held numerous shows and events throughout these years. The most popular would be their annual Vergenoegen Village Day, anniversary event at Joe Veira Park, and the car and bike show. They are constantly playing out at two to three different places a night, can be heard on the radio and seen on TV with their programme, hits from the streets.
Wildfire Entertainment is probably the youngest major entertainment entity to date. We have hosted a number of quality concerts with major artistes and managed events for corporate clients such as Nestle`, Digicel, GT&T, and the ICC World 20/20 Cricket committee. In addition, we host the annual all star basketball weekend, which this year featured the And1 Team. Our sister company, Wildfire Productions, is involved with many high quality ads, documentaries, music video, and media productions.
In addition to this partnership, we have also partnered with one of Guyana’s major corporate entities,  Banks DIH for 2011. Our first event is on Christmas night, the 9th Annual Vergenoegen Village Day on the West Side. We have Banks DIH on board with Guinness and Banks beer, and will be featuring Mavado, Serani, Natural Black, D’Hitman, Shakti Strings, 71 Sounds, and as a gift from Wildfire Entertainment, people can expect to see another special surprise guest, a Jamaican artiste on Christmas night in Vergenoegen.
This coming together of our forces will have an impact on the entertainment industry. Slingerz being the best in sound system and street events, and Wildfire Entertainment being a major player in event and concert management. Guyana can prepare for a wild, hot and slinging 2011! It really is a WE ting now!!