The local soca season shifts into gear tonight with tonight’s opening night of Bacchanal Fridays.

Opening night is expected to set the tone for the weekly series with DJ Sinistar and ‘mikeman’ Steelie Back, as well as DJ Richie Ras, all coming directly from Trinidad carnival.

Sinistar and Steelie Back, dubbed Miami’s Dream Team, have each been playing music for over 15 years, but only decided to combine their individual talents in 2013.

Richie RAS, a seasoned soca DJ, is a Mas Camp favourite with his first-hand knowledge of the most recent soca hits. For the past few years he has been producing a series of soca mixes for Jamaican soca fans to enjoy.

“Bacchanal Fridays will keep the vibes high as we bring top soca DJs and musicians from across the globe. On March 10 we will have Ryan Sayeed and DJ Lantern, March 17 Nuphoric and Smoke, March 24 it will be Creep of Chromatic and Dr Jay. We double up on March 31 and for that we feature Duchess and Sanjay, and on the final Bacchanal Friday, April 7, we will have Singer Drue, DJ Musicale and DJ Franco. So there will be a lot going on in preparation for the big finale on Easter weekend and the road march,” shared Bacchanal Jamaica’s Nicholas Franklin.

Sponsors Smirnoff, Pure Country, Ammar’s, Jamaica Tourist Board, FAME FM, Red Bull, TVJ, Pepsi, Carreras,

Jamaica Observer, RETV, King Alarm and Knutsford Court Hotel are back on board and will be pulling out all the stops to engage patrons, said Michael Ammar Jr, Bacchanal Jamaica director.

Bacchanal Jamaica represented well at the just conduded Trinidad Carnival, and the principals are all ready to share the soca fever in Jamaica.

“It was a blast! Several momentous events took place. Soca giants Bunji Garlin and Machel Montano broke the ice and created soca history with their collaboration

Buss Head; Chalkdust broke the national calypso monarch record held by Sparrow; the Ultimate Rejects took over the soca season with what became the 2017 soca anthem Full Extreme. Great music, lots of fetes to choose from and a road parade that was full of colour and glitz,” remarked Bacchanal director, Michael Ammar III.