World News
SXM Festival Adds Black Coffee, Loco Dice, Layla Benitez, Moody Jones, Natalia Roth, Maga, Amine K, OXIA, Rossi., Ms Mada + More to 2023 Lineup
SXM Festival returns from March 8-12, 2023 for a musical and cultural experience like no other. It is the only festival in the world that takes over an entire island – the Caribbean gem of Saint Martin | Sint Maarten – and is the ultimate destination experience. Prepare for a week of world-class electronic music immersed in stylish, sumptuous, and often surreal locations dotted around this idyllic island. Beach, villa, and boat parties, hilltop sunrise sessions and peak-time boho parties are all featured alongside French style champagne sipping afternoons by the pool, incredible food, boat activities, and culturally diverse explorations. Define your own unique adventure and rest assured that every day will be different – one never to forget. |
Since its debut in 2016, SXM Festival has proven to be so much more than just another festival. This life-enriching experience quickly became one of the most talked about musical gatherings in the world. It’s a mix of Caribbean, French and Dutch culture, with an audience of worldly adventurers from over 35 countries and local enthusiasts gathering for some of the best underground electronic music talent on the planet. SXM Festival is a 5-day and 5-night electronic music escape and breeding ground for musical experimentation and discovery – eclipsed only by the beauty of the festival’s host location. |
SXM Festival’s Phase 2 lineup adds a new batch of talented names to the fold, starting with Grammy Award-winning South African artist Black Coffee and Desolat label co-founder Loco Dice, plus Puerto Rico’s own Natalia Roth, the stylish sounds of Moody Jones, and Anthony Middleton of Audiofly. Highlights on the Phase 2 lineup continue with Moroccan electronic music ambassador Amine K, members of the Scenarios collective and label Emanuel Satie and Maga, and respected French export Oxia, along with a diverse mix of veteran and rising names including Jean Pierre, Layla Benitez, Paolo Rocco, Ms Mada, Paso Doble, Underher, Airrica, Wahm, and more. |
These phase two additions join an already packed lineup featuring previously announced names including Grammy-nominated, triple platinum production duo CamelPhat, Music On leader Marco Carola, pioneering electronic producer Dubfire, and the musical experience of Astra Club – a b2b set from DJ Tennis and Carlita. Additional highlights include beloved Italian artist Francesca Lombardo, the reinvented house sensation Gordo, Brazilian stand out DJ and producer Mochakk, the return of Swiss favourite Sonja Moonear following her memorable 2022 performance, and a live set from visionary melodic house and techno veteran Rodriguez Jr. |
The lineup’s global depth extends further with emergent West African DJ and producer AMÉMÉ, Palestinian DJ Maher Daniel, French exports Apollonia and YokoO, Berlin-based DJ and producer Gene On Earth, and German producer and co-founder of the Common Sense People event series Konstantin Sibold. A diversity of styles round out the lineup from the likes of acclaimed selector Doc Martin, Moscow Records and Moss Co. imprint head Archie Hamilton, the mystical melodic sounds of Deer Jade, and psychedelic house producer Mita Gami among others. |
The party venues are simply incredible, starting with the legendary Happy Bay. The secluded private beach nestled in the jungle serves as the main evening venue and is home to the iconic Arc Main Stage and the immersive Ocean Stage. Other highlights include Boho Beach Club, the perfect place to chill out and escape during the day, and the infamous Villa Party, accessible only with a VIP ticket. Experience a revival of the luxury only bygone movie idols of the 60s jetset have lived, combined with modern-day luxury and design. This party is definitely one of the highlights of the festival. This exclusive estate, Sandyline, is a showcase for the chic, a day time rendez-vous for your inner rock star. |
VIP Ticket holders receive access to exclusive areas with lush amenities at Happy Bay, priority table service, a chill-out area, a dedicated VIP bar and special cocktails, pop-up bars, VIP washroom, surprises and more. |
VIP Ticket holders are also guaranteed first access to tickets for the ultra-exclusive limited capacity Satellite events; The Panorama Party and Boat Party. The Panorama Party gives attendees the chance to party at the peak of Sint Maarten’s highest mountain with breathtaking 360-degree views of the best Caribbean sunset. That Venue has been used for the Cercle live stream and has to be seen to be believed. Other Satellite Parties include the Boat Party, setting sail on the largest lagoon in the Caribbean with the most colorful sunset. Also this year, a new Catamaran Cruise will take 100 people to the most beautiful spots with food, drinks, swimming and a surprise DJ. VIP Tickets also allow advanced table bookings for each venue. |
Those seeking the best possible experience should book their Villa directly with SXM Festival for added benefits such as Private Airport transfer, Admission directly in the Villa, Ultra VIP parking at Happy Bay, Dedicated VIP Host & Concierge Services, Priority Table Service, Photo Shoot, Pre-Festival styling sessions, hosted backstage visit and more. |
For the 6th edition, the event will continue to build upon its deep connection with the cultural and ecological fabric of the beautiful host locale of Saint Martin | Sint Maarten. SXM Festival is also dedicated to leaving a smaller footprint and helping replenish natural environments. With initiatives that include going paperless, planting palm trees, saving energy with LED and solar lights, and eliminating plastic waste throughout the festival while collaborating year after year with local talents, it is the mission of SXM Festival to become increasingly sustainable throughout their growth. The festival also has a no-trace policy: every venue is transformed to be more beautiful at the end of each event. |
Whether you are a returning vet or a first-timer, SXM Festival and the beautiful island of Saint Martin | Sint Maarten holds rich cultural surprises behind each twist and turn. It is truly a sum of its parts and a voyage of a lifetime. |
Tickets for SXM Festival are available now on the festival’s official website. |
SXM Festival 2023 Lineup (A-Z): Airrica Amine K AMÉMÉ Apollonia Archie Hamilton Asaf Samuel Astra Club (Dj Tennis b2b Carlita) Anthony Middleton Black Coffee Calussa Camelphat Chaim Deer Jade Demi Riquisimo Doc Martin Dubfire Emanuel Satie Francesca Lombardo Gene On Earth Gordo Jean Pierre Jenia Tarsol Kadosh Konstantin Sibold Layla Benitez Loco Dice Maga Maher Daniel Marco Carola Mita Gami Mochakk Moody Jones Ms Mada Natalia Roth Nico De Andrea Nicolas Masseyeff Oxia Paolo Rocco Parallelle Paso Doble Raresh Rodriguez Jr (Live) Rossi. Sean Doron SIS Sonja Moonear Tony Y Not Underher Wahm (Live) YokoO |
World News
Craig David reveals he’s been celibate for two years
Craig David claimed his celibacy helped him usher in a new era of creativity.
The “7 Days” singer, 42, appeared on (more…)
World News
Bernard Hill, Titanic and The Lord of the Rings Actor, Dead at 79
Actor Bernard Hill, best known for roles in Titanic and Lord of the Rings, has died aged 79. (more…)
World News
Meryl Streep Guest of honour at the opening ceremony of the 77th Festival de Cannes
Meryl Streep will be the guest of honour at the opening ceremony of the 77th Festival de Cannes which will take place on the stage of the Grand Théâtre Lumière on Tuesday, May 14. A celebrated figure in American cinema, the American actress will kick-off the upcoming edition which will draw to a close on Saturday, May 25th with the awards’ list given by the President of the Jury, Greta Gerwig.
After Jeanne Moreau, Marco Bellocchio, Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Jane Fonda, Agnès Varda, Forest Whitaker or Jodie Foster, Meryl Streep will receive the Festival’s Honorary Palme d’or. 35 years after winning the Best Actress award for Evil Angels, her only appearance in Cannes to date, Meryl Streep will be making her long-awaited return to the Croisette.
“I am immeasurably honored to receive the news of this prestigious award. To win a prize at Cannes, for the international community of artists, has always represented the highest achievement in the art of filmmaking. To stand in the shadow of those who have previously been honored is humbling and thrilling in equal part. I so look forward to coming to France to thank everyone in person this May!” Meryl Streep stated.
“We all have something in us of Meryl Streep!” Iris Knobloch and Thierry Frémaux said. “We all have something in us of Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie’s Choice, Out of Africa, The Bridges of Madison County, The Devil Wears Prada and Mamma Mia! Because she has spanned almost 50 years of cinema and embodied countless masterpieces, Meryl Streep is part of our collective imagination, our shared love of cinema.”
After her drama studies and initial success on New York City stages, Meryl Streep’s career took off on the big screen in 1978 with The Deer Hunter, starring Robert De Niro. In Michael Cimino’s film, Meryl Streep wrote all her lines to give her character nuance and depth. This marked both her first Oscar nomination — now reaching a record 21 — and her demand to play strong, ambivalent women. For example, when she starred opposite Dustin Hoffman in Kramer vs. Kramer, she refused to let the film revolve around the male lead and rewrote a crucial monologue. She went on to win her first Oscar, and quickly gained recognition from the audiences and the industry alike.
Meryl Streep uses her intuition and hard work to reinvent herself with every appearance. Even on the scale of a film: in Karel Reisz’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman, she played two roles. In Alan J. Pakula’s Sophie’s Choice, her acting addresses a mother’s inconceivable moral dilemma. For this character, she studied German and Polish to take on the accent — impeccable according to Andrzej Wajda — and won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Sidney Pollack’s unforgettable historical, romantic epic Out of Africa (1985) marked a new turning point, in which she and Robert Redford formed one of cinema’s most legendary couples. Far from confining herself to the register of passionate love, Meryl Streep also ventured into darker characters. In Fred Schepisi’s 1988 Evil Angels (A Cry in the Dark), she played a mother accused of infanticide. Her performance earned her the Best Actress Award at the 1989 Festival de Cannes.
In the 1990s, she tried her hand at gritty comedy: she challenged female stereotypes in Mike Nichols’ Postcards from the Edge and Robert Zemeckis’ Death Becomes Her. In The Bridges of Madison County, she captured the screen alongside Clint Eastwood in a love story as impossible as it is timeless, that went down in cinema history.
Throughout her career, Meryl Streep has never shied away from publicly denouncing the precarious position of women in the film industry. Aware of the issues surrounding the representation of women in Hollywood movies, and keen to embody all their facets in all their complexity and fragility, Meryl Streep plays a wide variety of roles and genres. After Stephen Daldry’s The Hours and Robert Altman’s The Last Show, it was in two roles as funny as unexpected that she once again made her mark: as the cantankerous editor-in-chief of a fashion magazine in The Devil Wears Prada and Donna, a hippie who marries off her daughter in the musical Mamma Mia! She went on to star in biopics (The Iron Lady, Florence Foster Jenkins, Julie & Julia), political satyres (Lions for Lambs, Pentagon Papers, Don’t Look Up) and family films such as Little Women, directed by Greta Gerwig, who serves as President of the Jury at this year’s Festival de Cannes.
Two women, two generations, two aspirations, and the same passion for the Seventh Art, brought together on the stage of the Grand Théâtre Lumière.
World News
Former US Army Servicemember, Sanda G. Frimpong Sentenced to Prison in Money Laundering Romance Scam
Sanda G. Frimpong, 33, was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison and ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution to victims for laundering the illicit proceeds of an elaborate series of romance scams. Frimpong pled guilty to three counts of money laundering on September 14, 2023.
“Romance scammers exploit our most vulnerable citizens, even our seniors and military veterans, sometimes leaving them financially and emotionally devastated,” said U.S. Attorney Michael Easley. “The fact that an Army servicemember was involved in romance scams while serving as a soldier is appalling. We are partnering with the Department of Defense to drum out fraudsters and money launderers like Frimpong from our military ranks and put them in prison where they belong.”
“Integrity is a core tenet of the armed forces and when servicemembers choose to compromise their integrity for greed, it tarnishes the reputation of all others serving in uniform,” stated Special Agent in Charge Christopher Dillard, Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), Mid-Atlantic Field Office. “DCIS and its law enforcement partners will continue to work with the U.S. Attorney’s Office to hold those accountable who cheat government programs and use online scams to prey on the most vulnerable.”
Frimpong and other conspirators, engaged in elaborate scams, impersonating romantic love interests, diplomats, customs personnel, military personnel, and other fictitious personas for the purpose of ensnaring their victims by earning their confidence, including promises of romance, sharing of an inheritance or other riches, or other scenarios intended to fraudulently induce the victims to provide money or property to the conspirators. Frimpong then laundered hundreds of thousands of dollars in proceeds of these frauds through his various bank accounts across state lines and through his contacts in Ghana. Frimpong was also an active-duty Army servicemember stationed at Fort Bragg during the commission of the offenses up until shortly after his arrest in 2023.
Michael Easley, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina made the announcement after U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III announced the sentence. Defense Criminal Investigative Service led the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney David G. Beraka prosecuted the case.
Related court documents and information can be found on the website of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina or on PACER by searching for Case No. 5:23-CR-0035-D.
World News
US Army Major Kojo Owusu Dartey Found Guilty After He Smuggled Guns to Ghana in Blue Barrels of Rice and Home Goods
US Army Major Kojo Owusu Dartey, 42, was convicted for smuggling firearms to Ghana in blue barrels disguised as containing rice and household goods.
The incident, which took place in April 2024, has sparked widespread discussion on social media platforms. Dartey, involved in a marriage fraud scheme, faces a maximum sentence of 240 months and is scheduled for sentencing on July 23, 2024. The case has raised questions about the motives behind the smuggling and the potential implications for national security.
A US Army Major, Kojo Owusu Dartey, known for his role in the US special forces, has been found guilty of smuggling firearms to Ghana hidden in blue barrels of rice and household goods.
The 42-year-old is facing a maximum sentence of 240 months and awaits sentencing on July 23,… pic.twitter.com/o28I3wZOKd
— EDHUB🌍ℹ (@eddie_wrt) April 30, 2024
A federal jury convicted a United States Army Major, currently assigned to Fort Liberty, on charges of dealing in firearms without a license, delivering firearms without notice to the carrier, smuggling goods from the United States, illegally exporting firearms without a license, making false statements made to an agency of the United States, making false declarations before the court, and conspiracy. Kojo Owusu Dartey, age 42, faces a maximum penalty of 240 months when sentenced on July 23, 2024.
Read Also: Abena Korkor says she’s found love in a bipolar American army officer
“We are partnering with law enforcement agencies across the globe to expose international criminals – from money launderers to rogue international arms traffickers capable of fueling violence abroad,” said U.S Attorney Michael Easley. “Through a partnership with Ghanaian officials, this rogue Army Major was convicted at trial after smuggling guns to Ghana in blue barrels of rice and household goods. I want to thank the Ghana Revenue Authority and the International Cooperation Unit Office of the Attorney-General of Ghana for their assistance in the investigation. I also commend the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) attachés to U.S. Embassy Accra and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs of the Department’s Criminal Division for their significant assistance to this prosecution.”
“Far from being a victimless crime, firearms trafficking threatens public safety across our nation and beyond,” said Toni M. Crosby, Special Agent in Charge of the ATF Baltimore Field Division. “The Baltimore Field Division is proud to partner with the Ghana Revenue Authority and ATF’s Charlotte and Louisville Field Divisions for this investigation, which has kept firearms off the streets — preventing them from being used in any number of killings and other crimes — and ended this international firearm trafficking scheme.”
According to court records and evidence presented at trial, between June 28 and July 2, 2021, Dartey purchased seven firearms in the Fort Liberty area and tasked a U.S. Army Staff Sergeant at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to purchase three firearms there and send them to Dartey in North Carolina. Dartey then hid all the firearms, including multiple handguns, an AR15, 50-round magazines, suppressors, and a combat shotgun inside blue barrels underneath rice and household goods and smuggled the barrels out of the Port of Baltimore, Maryland, on a container ship to the Port of Tema in Ghana. The Ghana Revenue Authority recovered the firearms and reported the seizure to the DEA attaché in Ghana and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Baltimore Field Division. At the same time, Dartey was a witness in the trial of U.S. v. Agyapong. A case that involved a 16-defendant marriage fraud scheme between soldiers on Fort Liberty and foreign nationals from Ghana that Dartey had tipped off officials to. In preparation for the trial, Dartey lied to federal law enforcement about his sexual relationship with a defense witness and lied on the stand and under oath about the relationship.
Michael Easley, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, made the announcement after Chief U.S. District Judge Richard E. Myers II accepted the verdict. The ATF, Army Criminal Investigation Division and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Export Enforcement investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gabriel J. Diaz prosecuted it with technical assistance from David Ryan, DOJ Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.
World News
Ex-UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou announces death of his 15-month-old son
Former UFC champion Francis Ngannou announced the death of his 15-month-old son Kobe on Monday. (more…)
- Buzz5 days ago
Ghanaian blogger Sika Official stabbed at a pub
- Buzz6 days ago
Don’t marry someone you’ve not dated for more than 7 years – Tic
- People & Lifestyle7 days ago
Techiman-to-Accra: Seidu Rafiwu’s Record-Breaking 380km Walkathon
- Buzz15 hours ago
“I went to a cemetery at 2am to sprinkle powder” – Amerado recounts doing ‘for girls’
- World News7 days ago
Former US Army Servicemember, Sanda G. Frimpong Sentenced to Prison in Money Laundering Romance Scam
- Buzz1 week ago
Taking the HIV test in public was my suicidal note to the world; I couldn’t take it anymore. – Joyce Dzidzor Mensah
- World News7 days ago
US Army Major Kojo Owusu Dartey Found Guilty After He Smuggled Guns to Ghana in Blue Barrels of Rice and Home Goods
- Listen5 days ago
Prince Bright and Stonebwoy unveil their forthcoming EP with electrifying new song ‘Back To Sender (Taamiawu)’
- Listen6 days ago
Amerado drops new single titled ‘Tin Ton Tan’
- Buzz3 days ago
Oheneyere Mercy Aseidu, Gifty Anti, Stacy Amoateng, and other celebrities grace Akwaboah Jnr’s Traditional Wedding
- Buzz3 days ago
Highlights from Medikal’s spectacular show at London’s O2 Indigo
- People & Lifestyle1 week ago
Kwadwo Sheldon’s Humorous Reconciliation Attempt with Shatta Wale