This year?s Cup Match may go down as one of the very best. As if confirmation that Bermuda has the finest cricket team for 2,000 miles in any direction (and 4,000 miles to the east and west) were not enough, this year the Island will play host to almost the entire surviving royal family of Jamaican music.

On Wednesday night, in a gargantuan tent at the Number One Gate at Kindley Field, the Wailers will headline an extraordinary family night of West Indian and Bermudian music, all for charity.

By themselves, the Wailers would be all a soul might need for a surpassing Cup Match opening, regardless of weather conditions (a hurricane might pass close by, the weather forecasters tell us).

But ? Glory be! ? the Skatalites will also be playing. First, the details. Gates will open for the Bermuda One Love 2005 concert at 8 p.m. on Wednesday.

The show will start at 9 p.m.

Souljah 1 will supply the sounds. An abundance of local talent will perform, with Jahstice behind them: Flookie, Squinty, Daddy Wild, Mango Seed and Blac will warm people up, as if that were necessary at the end of July. Jahstice will play a set of their own, as is only fitting.

That list includes many of the Island?s finest young musicians, who will no doubt demonstrate, voluntarily or otherwise, their debt to the elders who will follow them onstage.

Without the contributions of the older ladies and gentlemen of the Wailers and the Skatalites, who will grace the later stages of the evening (probably the much later stages), little if any of the popular music of the past 40 years would have been possible.

Redmond Productions, Spanish Town and StarTime Productions, three Bermudian outfits with a name for professionalism, are promoting the concert.

The tent in which events will unfold is part of StarTime?s goal of ?enhancing Bermuda?s entertainment industry year-round,? as general manager Glenn Doers explained at his King Street office late last week.

Stuck to his walls were giant lists of the many administrative tasks it takes to pull off an event of this stature.

If the lines scratched through a number of those tasks were any indication, things were tracking, but Mr. Doers wore the hassled look of a man deep in his game.

Spanish Town is best known for the unrelenting efforts of Jonathan (Stalk) Trott to bring quality sound to Bermudian ears. Mr. Trott handles the technical side, and Mr. Doers and his team, including the likeable Antoine Raynor, look after operational matters.

?At Spanish Town, our goal is to provide the entire infrastructure ? sound, lights, tenting, administration, security ? necessary to support the entertainment industry on the Island,? Mr. Doers explained. ?The message is: Bermuda is open all year round for entertainment.?

He is especially proud of the ?megatent?, which measures 160 feet by 100 feet. Certain sections of the rear of the tent will be open on Wednesday night, to let the air and the vibrations circulate.

The tent is a co-production with Eventstar of Miami, Florida, whose brochure suggests that they have even larger tents that could hold everyone in Bermuda, and then some.

?By year-round, I mean that in the winter, with ceiling fans operating, we can keep people dry and comfortable,? Mr. Doers said, warming to his subject and dialling up a zillion tent photographs on his laptop.

Two instructors have been training and will in due course certify a 12-man Bermudian crew on the erection of the tent, which takes two full days and a fork-lift truck. Most recently, a circus was held within its confines.

?This concert crosses all the demographic lines,? Mr. Doers said, turning his attention to Wednesday?s festivities.

?Black and white, old and young, local and visitor ? it?s a family show in a friendly venue, a community show, as Bermuda starts to celebrate the Cup Match holiday. The concert will encourage unity and involvement in the community.?

Cue the arrival, in a noticeably more relaxed condition, of Bermudian Ashley Redmond. Most Bermudian men don?t wear socks; Mr. Redmond wasn?t wearing shoes, either.

A successful technological entrepreneur, the concert was his idea. His production company located and contracted with the artists.

Among other achievements, his software company was involved in streaming the recent Live8 concerts via the Internet to more than nine million people worldwide.

?I was in Bristol (England) in February,? Mr. Redmond explained.

?We did an Asian Ocean tsunami benefit gig, featuring Portishead, Robert Plant, Massive Attack and a host of other performers.

?We do all the streaming for all the big shows.

?I saw that the Wailers were back into touring at the start of the year.

?One of the few regrets I have was not seeing Bob Marley live,? he continued.

?The Wailers were like magic. They have a young singer, Gary Pine, a Jamaican singer based in New York, who has a band, One Vibration.

?If you close your eyes, you would swear you were listening to Bob.?

Aficionados will tell you that Robert Nestor Marley never really left us; his spirit certainly lives on in the hearts and minds of people all around the world.

So, Mr. Redmond formed the idea of bringing the bands to Bermuda, and to make that a reality.

?I called Stalk,? he said. ?The bands were all over the idea. They wanted to come here, and to get some studio time.?

Both the Wailers and the Skatalites will stay in Bermuda for a week and spend time recording.

Both bands were scheduled to play this past weekend in places far away, before heading to Bermuda.

The Skatalites were in Uppsala, Sweden on Friday; Sixfours (which make 24), in France on Saturday; and Val de Ruz in Switzerland on Sunday. The Wailers played in the more prosaic Norwalk, Connecticut on Saturday night, but their next gigs after leaving Bermuda will be in Italy and Hungary.

?The world can?t get enough reggae music,? said Mr. Redmond, clearly a fan himself.

?The whole show is for charity,? Mr. Redmond said.

Three charities will benefit ? the Alpha Boys? School in Jamaica, a local children?s charity, and Small Planet, with which Mr. Redmond is affiliated.

If you don?t know who the Wailers or the Skatalites are ? no, that?s impossible.

Everyone knows that.

@EDITRULE:Tickets are $45 in advance, from Dub City, Queen of Sheeba, Logic Communications and Music World; at the gate, they will cost $65. Concessions stands will operate.