I Love Soca [Review]

....when you feel like the soca done and there's more soca to come (8)

It's been THREE months since my last soca fete so my hopes were very high for I <3 Soca Jamaica's first 'cooler fete' and they certainly did NOT disappoint.

Twas. Fabulous.

That's all there is to it. The music was great, the venue was absolutely beautiful, the vibe was fantastic and the people....I LOVE the I <3 Soca crowd!

Only one thing upset me that night and it was the reminder that there would be no more fetes til November *sad face* Hardwine and Carinival Rewine ( which I will have tickets for :D )
...Apart from that I Love Soca, Cooler Fete was pure soca bliss *happy sigh*

Look out for the next I Love Soca late December, in the mean time check out pix from SLEEK Jamaica and  Gems Jamaica and don't forget to like Carnival Rewine on Facebook

Off Season Soca!! :D

It's that time of year again when the greatest off season parties are held. This September - December season there are 3 top events that are a MUST attend on my Soca calendar

I Love Soca - Cooler Fete 

This premium event has gone "cooler" which is great for college students as its only $1000 pre-sold and $1500 at the gate. To get you ready they have a promo mix available on their event page [click the link above]. The Dj's are Selecta Myles (promo mix dj) and Dj Richie Ras (one of my favourite soca djs from Ja) So this is DEF gonna be a great event!

 See pic below for directions

Hard Wine
Hard Wiiiiiiiiiiiine! This is going to be the 10th staging of this top of the top off season soca event and I can't wait to see what they have to offer. Details have not been released as yet but stay tuned to my blog and their page and you'll be sure to know whats up. What I know for sure it will be held at UWI Mona Student's Union.

Carnival Rewine
Carnival Rewine 'Return of the Mas'.....Bacchanal Memories! Just the name alone should have you on your toes, I know I'm on mine! This drinks inclusive fete to be held right beside the original Mas Camp on Nov 30 promises non stop vibes rain or shine (just like the last one!) Ticket details will be announced soon but just know you'll be getting yours from me :)

These are the events on my calendar...what's on yours?

Summer Soca!!!

I've been neglecting my blog lately because I've been suuuuuperrrr busy and finally got a free day to  sort it out and low and behold my post was already written for me lol

anywho....Soca is NOT done! There are Summer stagings of some of the top soca parties and a few new ones. Told ya! :p

Since my list and LehWeGo's list is basically the same thing I'll just direct you to their post here. Remember to follow them on Twitter and like them on Facebook!

And remember Hardwine November 2nd!

Carnival "Wrap Up"

-8- Cuz when you feel like di soca done....and there's more soca to come..

Carnival season is "over" in Ja *bawls uncontrollably*...I must say this was my best season yet. I'm not sure if its because I went out a lot more or because the parties I went to were fab (minus one) but 2012 was a GREAT year for soca in Jamaica!

Yaays
The music was MUCH MUCH better! Last year the parties were filled with 1922 soca and Palance, this year the Dj's did some work! It almost felt like I was hearing Vibes Cya Done and Mr. Fete a lil tooo much. The 'less popular' (those not by Machel) 2012 soca songs were kinda underplayed over all but it was still good to hear new soca music.

Some of the best events I went to this season were---> UWI Carnival Ring Road, IslandMas Soca Village, Beach Jouvert and Bacchanal Jouvert. I wrote a post on all of these so I need not expound on em..


Naays
Only thing I had a real problem with is how expensive and commercialized the Jamaican soca scene is. Everything else can be overlooked (as far as I can remember).
I'm an arts student and so I have school expenses quite frequently. School trumps partying any day but I love soca music so I'll always find a way to balance my 2 loves =)


Anywho...I had a great time with my Bajan Bruk It Down Babies (lol) and can't wait for next year ^.^

BTW!! Soca is NOT done! There are TWO Must Attend soca parties in July Soca vs Dancehall and Tailwind


Be. There.

Beach Jouvertttttttt!!!!!

YOW!!!!!!!
This is the BEST Bacchanal Jamaica event! The music! The vibes! The paint! MACHEL!!!!

I smile, laugh, jump, wuk up and **** out till I fool :D :D

Machel needs to honoured and knighted! I stood in front of that stage for his ENTIRE performance!! I'm not a huge Machel fan but God know he took Beach Jouvert! The long lines at the bar and lack of paint could be ignored because of the greatness that was Machel Montano HD, his band and his dancers

This is the first time I'm watching male soca dancers live and God know.... Brittany's husband needs to come here..like now X_X

And let's not forget Patrice Roberts...her performance had some really good moments (I zoned out thinking about going to the bar a couple times tho lol)

as a female I found her outfit a lil distracting... I kept on wondering how many times she was gonna draw down her dress -__-

Bacchanal Jamaica/Smirnoff Jamaica NEED to sort out the bar staff!! ONE Bar with around 8 people serving and alot more doing stock and carrying ice.. for the amount of people at beach jouvert that just wasn't acceptable. I went to the bar three times and couldn't bother after that. I also felt that there needed to be ALOT more paint. One round of paint was just not enough.

No worries here tho, because Beach Jouvert 2013 will definitely be seeing me :)

The Experience that was Cooler Fete...

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

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..

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.

Good friends and drinks can make any party experience worthwhile

Even at the venue they were still advertising Kes #sigh

UWI Carnival Ring Road 2012

:D :$

BUCKETTTTT!!!!!!!!

Island Mas Jamaica did it for me again!! :D

This year i felt getting 'carnivalized' meaning boots, gems, the works...so i did :D

My make up and sling was by Jaye-Ann O'Connor (BagLady by MsJaye in my previous post), stocking and "sequined goodness" ( as somebody called it lol) by Carnival Cute Ja and boots from Fabulous Findz

I decided to jump with Island Mas again because there was no other option really.. Ever heard of 'stick to d evil weh u kno'? Well i believe in that statement 100%. My package this year was $1200 and with that I got a t-shirt, bucket, free pass to Soca Village that night and unlimited drinks, vibes and Carnival goodness on the road, what more could a girl ask for?.... Food, water and sweets in my package and on the road! Felt like I was in Trinidad for while lol :$

I was late this year so i missed the pre-party :( by the time I got to the truck they were by Irvine and believe me walking from Preston i wanted to RUN i could feel the vibes and i was readyyyyy!

Ring Road was AMAAAAAAAAAZING! Dj Billy and Richie Ras took my heart! Island Mas played a total of 20 mins of Dancehall! 20 mins!! I think that's just beautiful :)


"Dutty Fridayz"
With that said....my Carnival experience ended with the march. Once we got to Union, Dutty Fridayz started -___- if i heard 'Bruk It Dwn' or 'Gyal a Bubble' ONE more time! The dj's even started playing gun tune....i sat in amazement I honestly couldn't believe the transformation.

Now i can understand a one n few Dancehall songs but I could count on ma 19 fingers the soca songs played at Union. Playing what the people wanted cannot be an excuse its C-A-R-N-I-V-A-L! Soca should be the order of the day!

Behaviour
For those complaining about the behaviour...what did you expect? Students walking, holding hands and rocking to the beat? kmt..
Jamaica has a Dancehall culture which comes with a 'Dash Out' mentality, so given the opportunity to be half naked in the sun hot with unlimited liquor n soca music pumping people WILL dash out and not in a 1999 sense a 2012 one that incorporates trees, gullies, stop signs and the like..


I will say that I feel Island Mas is the future of Soca in Jamaica, they get the best Dj's, have the best concepts (hello Bucket!!), keep the best parties and they are the fore runners in getting Jamaica up to par with other Caribbean countries when it comes to Carnival. Anywho I'm grateful for the soca I did hear on the road, it made up for the what I had to put up with at Union..  I'm ready for next year!

FAV costumes for the day (Y)

6:30 Bucket!

BUCKET CREW 2012