The All-Island Carnival kicked off in Kingston at Soca Junkies last weekend with performances from Elephant Man, Aidonia and Little Rick from Barbados.

Staged at the UDC property in New Kingston, the party – a fusion of soca and dancehall – was the perfect start what is to be an 11-week Carnival journey that will infect all of Jamaica with the Carnival spirit right up to the Easter holidays.

Pepsi intends to invest heavily in the season as it continues its drive to use music as a vehicle to capture the hearts and minds of Jamaica’s entertainment-loving population.

“We’re moving into Carnival,” says Carlo Redwood, Pepsi’s head of marketing for Jamaica who added that they were looking for an event that would capture the imagination of Jamaicans across the island. The All Island Carnival replaces the Jamaica Carnival that was spearheaded by Byron Lee and the Dragonnaires and which became a part of the entertainment landscape for more than a decade and as such, according to Redwood, Pepsi will be throwing their support behind it.

“We’re executing promotions in supermarkets the island where consumers can not only win tickets to the Carnival events but Carnival-related items as well,” Redwood revealed. The afore-mentioned items include Pepsi bags, coolers, t-shirts and wave rags.

The next stop on the All Island Carnival will be at Reggae Beach in St Mary on February 19. The party will feature the ever-popular Krossfyah Band from Barbados as well as Tanto Blacks.

Krosfyah released their debut album Ultimate Party in 1994, which propelled the group from obscurity to the most popular soca band in Barbados and won them the coveted “Band of the Year” title. Over the two decades, the band produced an incredible number of hit songs that have made them one of the top soca bands in the Caribbean. Hits like Wet Me, Pump Me Up, Road Block, Oil Pumping, Agony, Ragga Beenie and Timeless among others prompted the Ministry of Culture and the National Cultural Foundation in Barbados to honour the band last year August for their 20-year contribution to Barbadian music.

Tanto Blacks, a finalist in the Magnum Kings and Queens competition, has steadily made a name for himself in the local dancehall industry with songs like Anything and Bluetooth and Twitter.