SOCA faithful turned out in their numbers for RISE at Mas Camp in St Andrew last Friday. The occasion was the second of the six-week Bacchanal Friday series and hosted by party promoters Frenchmen.

“I think the Frenchmen night connected well with the audience. Frenchmen have been here from the beginning. They are a big part of Bacchanal. We’re very happy about that. It’s a partnership we hope will be a long one as it’s been 19 years,” Michael Ammar Jr, a Bacchanal Jamaica director, told Jamaica Observer.

Frenchmen used to the opportunity to showcase their costumes.

RISE headliners were New York-based DJs Back2Basics and Tony X, as well as local favourite DJ Smoke. They were pleased with the reception.

“You’ve got to understand, when it comes to Jamaica, a lot of people have this misconception that Jamaicans don’t like soca music and it’s a different time now. We live in a social media era where a lot of people are seeing that Jamaicans are big on soca music,” Tony X told the Observer. “The crowd who came here came to hear soca,” he said.

And that they did.

With the crowd warmed up by DJ Smoke, Back2Basics took over the reins. Their set was punctuated by a significant number of new soca tunes and catchy dancehall remixes on soca beats that never broke the carnival atmosphere but kept fans of both genres happy.

“We go against the grain and try and play music that’s not the norm,” said Back2Basics. “We play what we believe is hot and is going to be hot. We don’t play what is hot, because what’s hot and what we believe is hot are two different things.”

Ammar Jr was already looking to Friday.

“Next week is going to be huge night — Bacchanal and Dancehall: Creep from Chromatic, Kevin from Coppershot, and Ryan Sayeed. It’s probably going to be the biggest night except for J’Ouvert,” he added.