The promoter for this party deserves a kick or two from everybody who heard about Cooler Fete, thought about going and actually went!
False Advertisement
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| Photo Credit: Lehwego.com |
Where to begin....
There was NO Kes, NO Iwer George, NO Dawg E Slaughter, NO Swappi, NO Private Ryan...No Nobody!
In the pic posted above on March 21 a member of Kes' management team made it known that Kes was never booked for the event [Strike 1]. After she did so, members of Cooler Fete's promotional team continued to advertise Kes as apart of the line up, being who I am I corrected one of them and was rudely told "I am a promoting for them so I would know more than you" later on in the day I saw that same individual advertising that Swappi was the new headliner... [Strike 2]
I was very sceptical about that but I left it alone.. at least Private Ryan was still gonna there (haha)..
I follow Private Ryan on twitter and saw him tweet that he'd be playing in studio till 3pm on April 6... How could he be playing till 3pm on the day he was booked for Cooler Fete, a day party..(we'll talk about that part a little later) so I asked him if he was playing in Jamaica and he replied --->
While on my way to Ochi on Friday Cooler Fete ads were on the radio advertising Iwer George and Private Ryan...[Strike3]
Time
I did not realise the importance of "Gates Open at...." on a flyer till this day. Being a 'cooler fete' one automatically assumes its a day party, boy was I wrong. The promoter originally told a dj booked for the event that the party would run from 2pm-10pm then it was changed to 4pm-2am and later on 8pm-2am (these changes were told to him on the day). All this time I heard no time info in the radio ads and saw none on FB or Twitter. When i finally got my early bird ticket (which was still available in Ochi during the party) and looked at it said 6pm - 2am... [Strike 4]
The 'Fete'
At around 11:30 I decided to leave out to head to the party, I had already decide to write about the pre-Cooler Fete experience which was just utter rubbish already but I decided that it would not be fair to write a review about a party I kept on getting bad updates about but never attended
Never attended anything at Drax Hall Beach so I was sure I was lost when I got to the entrance there were no banners, security or barriers just a huge light at the entrance of the estate. Luckily a lady was sitting outside and told me I was at the right place and directed me to the party.
Driving down a seemingly endless dark road to a party that was already rated F on my grade sheet did not help at all. We finally came up on 2 barriers, 2 security guards and around 40 cars parked on the road side. One of the security guards directed me to park behind the barrier even though only 10 cars were parked there... Beside the 'parking' was a huge empty lot with a very bright light beaming across the lot. The only light lit the parking was the light of the moon (luckily it was full)
Standing outside, the 30-something patrons were complaining about the 45 minute wait for the shuttle to the beach and one of the security guards called someone at the venue and was instructed to tell the patrons to walk down the road to meet the bus (lol) [Strike 65], the security realising how stupid this was told the person who he was speaking with on the phone to hurry up and send the bus and hung up [Strike 246]
Anywho around 10 minutes later a bus came n parked right where a new set of people were standing so myself and the a few of the people who were there before had to wait on the second bus which took around 15 minutes to come.
The ride to the party... WOW... I have never seen so much BUSH in my life! And I'm a country girl, used to go country every Sunday... Between the bush, ram goats and plantation slave houses and the
little dirt road idk how I managed!
When I got there I was honestly shocked to see that people were there enjoying themselves and I actually started too myself. The vibes was there and after a few drinks the troubles seemed worth it...well not really but there was a glimmer of hope.
Cooler Fete advertised as a soca fete, between 12:30 and 1:40 (what I was told was the climax of the event) around 10 soca songs were played.. Approximately 1:45am the dj announced that the party was over and he was handing over to a member of the sound crew... 1:45...
After listening to a few songs from the sound guy I decided to leave. When i got to the exit another shuttle with people had just arrived... poor them LOL
The Bar
I was really tired of shaking my head and I saw people at the bar cussing so I stayed clear. They also had advertised Cooler Packages for $6000...one of my followers went to the bar to get one and..
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| He went there at 10:30pm.. |
"With the Caribbean Sea as a perfect backdrop for an awesome venue Cooler Fete could have been so much more than what we experienced. Fresh from his stint in London Dj Smoke kept the patrons happy with his selections as too did Dj Taj from Renaissance Disco. Cooler Fete was initially advertised as a stage show with performances by Iwer George and others but these plans seemed to fall apart due to the event being cancelled then put back on again. We want to make a special shout out to the real soca junkies who came out and especially our "truck crew" who we shared an adventure with in the Drax Hall wilderness with shouts of "tree, tree, bush, bush". Enjoy the skkans of our first event of Easter wekend guys, we have much more coming up." <----that was the caption for the
Skkan Cooler Fete album
I requested an interview with the promoter earlier today and still have not received a reply. All I have to say is if Konshens did not have those two hit songs right now and people had not brought there own liquor I don't know how the promoters would have managed with the backlash.
NOTE: Usually on party fliers you will see "X, Y & Z presents..." there was no such thing on Cooler Fete's flier. Maybe it was intentional but the beauty of 2012 Facebook tells who owns pages...
The promoters need to go back to the control room and see where they went wrong. The concept was nothing new but it was a good concept. I hope they can recover from this huge failure.
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| Good friends and drinks can make any party experience worthwhile |
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| Even at the venue they were still advertising Kes #sigh |
