Bacchanal Battles with Dance hall

The battle between the musical genres — soca and dance hall, have been a heated one in our society. One we originated, the other we’ve adopted from our fellow Caribbean nation — Trinidad and Tobago.

However, in recent years, we've learnt to merge the two during the carnival season, and last Friday night scores of party goers made their way to Bacchanal​'s Spellbound at Mas Camp to see who would emerge the ultimate victor.

Aside from the opening night, it was the biggest crowd they had seen yet. Those who weren't on either side of the fence, were more than happy to have their cake and eat it too, indulging in the sweet variety.

Dr Jay De Soca Prince, and Dirty Dez who both had home court advantage, were comfortable with the patrons in attendance. Many sang at the top of their lungs old and new soca hits, while gyrating their waistlines to fast and slow beats. Were they however, any match for Creep from Chromatic who shook things up and had the crowd in a 'yardie’ frenzy? We asked four patrons what were their thoughts are of the Bacchanal Vs Dance hall 'clash’.

Soca got the better crowd response to me. Dance hall did well but not enough with the 'girls tunes'.

-D. E, male

I think soca did better mainly because of the crowd response. That crowd was a typical Friday night soca fete crowd, so while they enjoyed the dance hall, they were really there for the soca. I personally enjoyed the soca more.

-D. A, female

This is a tricky one because I think it was a pretty even match. However, I probably would've given it to dance hall just because they had the crowd going wild.

-M. M, male.

While I love soca, and think they did an awesome job, I think it was dance hall that actually pulled the crowd to Mas Camp Friday night. Soca fans were out and no doubt enjoyed themselves, but as far as consistent audience response goes, dance hall got the biggest 'forwards’ for the night.

-L. N, female