After Monday night, there was no shadow of a doubt left in the minds of the principals of I Love Soca Jamaica that patrons indeed love the genre. The massive turnout on the Kingston Waterfront left key conceptualiser Andrew Bellamy in awe, but more so because of how smoothly the event was executed.

“We’re extremely happy! It was a lot of work, I mean, it’s almost impossible and never been done before to bring such a huge event downtown, on the Waterfront and to execute in a way where we had good logistics, good traffic flow, we worked well with the police [and] security. As you can see, it’s a massive crowd. I won’t even try to put a figure to it, but this is definitely one of the largest, if not the largest crowd we’ve ever gotten,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

You did not need to be a mathematician to tell that there were thousands of patrons at the highly anticipated event. In fact, when the Observer arrived at approximately 8:15 pm, it took almost 45 minutes to get inside, due to the lengthy line that stretched along Port Royal Street. At that time, the venue was already packed and some eager patrons began pouring liquor and starting their own party, before passing the search and ticket checkpoints to enter the cooler-friendly event.

There was little to no walking room, as the attendees crammed closely together to gyrate to a slew of older and newer soca hits courtesy of DJs Lantern, Cardo, Mindless, Jr and Brush1 Chromatic, Tyler, Cyclone, Richie Ras, Franco, Tony X, and Travis World. The cherries on top were guest performances by Trinidadian soca artiste Sekon Sta, and Ding Dong and the Ravers Clavers. The latter were also joined by Jamaican-born American rapper Safaree, and retired West Indian cricketer Chris Gayle, for a cameo set.

There was hardly a patron seen standing in one place. The jumping, and thrusting of hips was the order of the night, and even liquor being poured on other attendees by some overzealous revellers. By the end of the night, every person’s feet or shoes were covered in mud from the spilling of liquor or melted ice across the ground.

I Love Soca is usually hosted at the National Stadium. This staging was, however, impossible because of the 49th Carifta Games that was underway at the venue. Many partygoers had expressed concern at the event being held downtown, however, Bellamy said they seemed to have warmed up to the idea.

“There’s always a hesitation when there’s something new, we’re used to something; we know how it normally works. But, we know this was a better move because this actually facilitated better traffic, more people, the logistics to get into the event. The reality is that Kingston city is where the future of entertainment has to come. It has to be one of the major hubs of entertainment. So, we stick out our head on the limb, and clearly, we brought everybody here. It doesn’t matter, midtown, uptown, downtown…everybody’s here! It definitely will become one of, if not, our home,” he added.

Patrons had very few words to share amid their revelry.

“This is the best I Love Soca I’ve ever experienced! It’s a movie,” said secretary Sandra Brown.

“Dem find it wid da one yah! It’s too good,” added accountant Mark Simmonds.