The Dream Weekend party series came to a colourful end with Dream J’Ouvert at Wonderland in Negril recently.

By midnight, the fun and feting was in full swing as almost everyone was decorated in paint and powder. Mud also came into play, as some ‘Dreamers’ used everything at their disposal. At 2:00 am, paint was in short supply and those in possession of the precious commodity held their containers close to them. In the middle of the venue was a huge water truck that drenched the thousands of patrons at regular intervals, much to their delight. The bar attendants were kept on their feet all night serving up gallons of drink mixes. Not every bucket of ice, bottled water or mixed drink was for consumption, some patrons used them to drench other guests.

“This is the best party in the entire world. What is better than booze, paint, half-naked females and soca and dancehall music?” a high-spirited Dreamer yelled.

Over at the turntables, Kamal Bankay, DJ Cyclone, and Lord Hype reeled out a string of soca and dancehall hits. The pulsating beat saw persons gyrating and forming soca trains. Patrons in the ‘No Paint VIP’ section couldn’t resist the vibes and joined the celebration in the general area.

The organisers raised the energy level by introducing soca artiste Bunji Garlin on stage. The soca star could do no wrong as he got patrons dancing to hits like Differentology (We Ready For The Road), Plenty Gyal, So And So, and Truck On Di Road.

Although she was not billed, Fay-Ann Lyons (Garlin’s wife) delivered a small set after much pleading from the crowd.

It was close to 4:00 am when the crowd began filing out of the venue bringing the curtains down on the 2017 staging of Dream Weekend.

On the plus side, the Dream Entertainment must be commended for an incident-free staging. The events were also held at the stipulated time and the venues were cleaned after each party.

For future stagings, however, it is suggested that organisers come up with a way to prevent the long queues and rush at the Redemption Centre. A lot of persons raised concerns saying it was extremely burdensome to redeem armbands as it was not safe. Although a number of shuttle buses were provided, there was still a build-up on traffic on the Hip Strip which resulted in lengthy delays.

— Simone Morgan-Lindo