ORGANISERS of the inaugural Soca + Festival is hailing the two-day event as a phenomenal success.

Though threatened by a tropical storm, music lovers, university students, and partygoers descended on the Waterfront in downtown Kingston on September 23 and 24.

“We wanted to provide more than just a venue for patrons to dance; we wanted our music lovers to be holistically stimulated and so we decided to enhance the visuals within the venue,” said Andrew Bellamy, managing director of I Love Soca Jamaica.

“We used augmented reality to heighten the entertainment experience. Patrons were greeted with QR codes on the 3D structures that were built at the entrance and the backdrop of the stage which allowed them to have even more fun when they took photos using social media platforms,” Bellamy continued.

Bellamy continued by highlighting the importance of the creatives who joined the team and carried the directors on a new creative journey for patrons to experience.

“It was a challenging yet satisfying build out execution that began two weeks before the actual festival. The larger-than-life structures that started out as mere graphic presentations months before were brought to life by the visual artistes, painters and carpenters on our team. We sought to give a more international look with the structures but we zoned into our retro dancehall aesthetic with the colours while incorporating the soca lingua with boldly imprinted words on the boxes that made the backdrop,” he said.

Performances from Voice (three-time Soca Monarch winner from Trinidad and Tobago), Skinny Fabulous (five-time Soca Monarch winner from St Vincent) with dancehall deejay Bounty Killer, Chi Ching Ching, and newcomers Bayka, Brisco, and Laa lee had the audience jumping, waving and showcasing old and new dance moves. The over 10 DJs on both nights (to include the lone female, DJ Nova) had the audience rocking to to soca, Afrobeats, R&B, hip hop, alternative, reggae and rock music in sporadic musical spurts. The use of phone lights and glow sticks gave even more confirmation of the satisfaction level of the audience on each night.

“The pandemic gave the team an opportunity to step back and realise that for a while, though we have sought to raise the bar, the entertainment industry has stuck to a known formula of how we enjoy music/party;” said Bellamy.

“We are proud of our execution of an experience that was visually novel in our Jamaica yet with the quality music production that we are known for,” he concluded.

Soca+ Festival will now be a staple on the events calendar in September in Jamaica. The festival to which coolers are allowed is set to provide a unique blend of music for not only local but international markets, thus reinforcing the versatility of the region’s music output and cementing Kingston’s reputation as a Creative City of Music.