The I Love Soca Cooler Festival is considered by many as one of the best fetes annually, in and outside of the carnival season, and as one of the larger of the events catering to soca lovers for the Easter weekend, the organisers certainly set out to satisfy the yearnings of its target audience.
Dubbed the new ‘festival stadium’, the waterfront venue was transformed from the roadway leading to the rave, to provide a safe, secure and satiating fun environment, said Andrew Bellamy, managing director of the event.
“We chose the Kingston waterfront because of its capacity to hold large audiences, the multiple parking solutions, and because it gave us opportunities to create a safe environment for our patrons. We’ve been downtown previously, in 2016 and 2017, and found that the patrons enjoyed it, so we may be exploring [this venue] as our festival home,” Bellamy told The Gleaner.
Over and above the additional lighting provided at strategic points on Ocean Boulevard and Port Royal Street, the Jamaica Constabulary Force earned its applause for increased police presence within the downtown Kingston area. This allowed for the easy movement of vehicular traffic from the streets into designated parking lots. It also gave comfort to the persons attending the event, knowing that the real road marshals were in town to protect and serve.
And despite being advertised as a pre-sold-only event, it was not surprising to see persons on the sidewalk of either side, before the gates officially opened and even during the event, still searching for tickets to purchase, so as not to be left out of the festivities. Meanwhile, those lucky patrons who obtained their tickets walked and wined passed with stocked coolers, and flags and rags ready to wave as they followed the echoes of the disc jockeys and their selections.
The music was electrifying, with the majority dose of soca hits complemented by a mix of dancehall and old-school pop, such as N’Sync, Spice Girls, and Britney Spears, which had the 90s babies in a sing-a-long frenzy. Trinidad and Tobago’s Sekon Sta kick-started the live showcase performing his popular tracks, like Who Pay, Come Correct and Aye Yo, but Brush1Chromatic was not about to let him off the stage before a lesson in dancehall.
Sekon Sta’s return to centre stage for a crash course in doing the 'Leggo Di Bird' dance move opened the curtains for the next performer. The inclusion of dancehall was amplified with the live performance of Ding Dong and the Ravers Clavers, who made certain Happiness, their latest rendition of the Afrobeats hit Finesse by Nigerian star Pheelz, was part of the mix. Chris Gayle and Safaree were also invited on stage as ‘guest ravers’. While some persons disliked the genre blending, they could not resist being transported out of the soca trance into an authentic dance – even for a few minutes.
The disc jockeys continued to spin hits, for which a little repetition from the earlier segment could not be avoided, and in marshalling a way forward, maintained a serious attitude towards safety. Several of them made announcements in regard to men being the protectors of the opposite sex, in what was a predominantly female audience. As there is a growing concern about new or popular technology like the use of Apple AirTags, which are an accessory to help locate devices, now being used by predators to track unassuming females, several disc jockeys kept issuing warnings to the patrons that while enjoying the fete, they should maintain a level of awareness to keep the event as an all-round good experience.
I Love Soca Cooler Festival heads to Miami on May 1.