Bacchanal, dancehall mix brings out crowd
BACCHANAL & Dancehall — the third in the Bacchanal Fridays soca party series — was a huge hit as it brought out thousands of fans to the Mas Camp venue in New Kingston last Friday.
“Biggest night so far this year. Great party. The dancehall and soca sets were hot and I think everyone had a great time,” Michael Ammar Jr, a Bacchanal Jamaica director, told the Jamaica Observer.
As per usual, the party didn’t pick up until after midnight and shot pass its 2:00 am cut-off time as the vibes kept everyone going. It took the music being turned by the organisers to bring things to a close, as energised patrons wanted to party into the wee hours of the morning. Before that, it was a back and forth between dancehall tracks from perennial favourites Chromatic and the soca stylings of Ryan Sayeed. Both had a good lead-in from DJ Tyler, who straddled several music genres to the crowd’s delight.
“It went well, as always. This is the third year we’re playing here and it’s a pleasure playing for the soca crowd,” said Creep of Chromatic.
Creep and hype man JR pulled no punches from the start, reeling off all the popular dancehall hits which set the audience singing and dancing within minutes into their set. Sayeed responded cautiously by playing familiar soca hits and not delving into the newer ones.
“I have to give it to dancehall. I mean, we’re in Jamaica after all so I can’t really carry the hope when it comes to soca verses dancehall in Jamaica,” Sayeed said jokingly.
For their second set, Chromatic came out guns blazing, digging into their catalogue of dubplates before handing the charged-up patrons back to Sayeed.
Ammar Jr hopes the energy shown at Bacchanal & Dancehall translates into Bacchanal Jamaica’s biggest change for 2018: their new beach party, Baewatch at Morgan’s Harbour in Kingston on Saturday.
“There’ll be no Bacchanal party on Friday night. We’re changing up the formula as we’re headed to Morgan’s Harbour on Saturday for our beach party. We need everybody to know that,” he said.
The director said patrons can come and expect sun, sand, lots of liquor, and great music.
