J’OUVERT — that early morning carnival celebration involving music, madness and of course, body paint, lived up to its reputation this year.

Two of the three J’Ouvert parties in kingston last Friday night truly put revellers into the frame of mind neccessary to climax the 2011 carnival season in the way it did on Sunday.

The Bacchanal J’Ouvert at Mas Camp had the attraction of playing host to the soca couple — Fay-Ann Lyons and her husband Bunji Garlin, while the LIME event, only metres away at the UDC venue in New Kingston had the crown prince of soca himself, Mr Machel Montano.

Compared to the previous Fridays, the home of Bacchanal, Mas Camp, was deserted when the Observer team arrived a few minutes shy of midnight. But this would change as the clock ticked closer to 2:00 on Saturday morning there was a huge increase in Bacchanal patrons. Every few minutes MC Wassy boasted about the exciting package that was to come. Soon after, the lyrical genius and the ‘Soca Fireman’ Bunji Garlin and the Asylum Band entered center stage and Mas Camp came to life. The Trindidad-born artiste made an explosive impact on those present as he delivered hits including Bring De Rum, Poor people song, Me Alone, Warrior Coming among a string of other catchy singles. Minutes later Garlin invited on stage the 2009 winner of the Groovy Soca Monarch title, his wife, the sexy Fay-Ann Lyons, and the screams from the crowd were almost deafening. The fusion of Fay-Ann and Bunji on stage was somewhat magical as they completely had everyone under their ‘soca spell’. Jumps, hip gyrations, and the waving of flags, rags or whatever worth waving was the crowd’s response as the couple spat out hit after hit. Consider it done, Pressure on it, Hold a bun, Go home if you caa take it, Call meh, Who you rather, Crazy over you and Ah something, help to make the list.

The live performance show came to an end and the MC announced that the ‘paint war’ was about to start much to the delight of soca junkies. Just moments later, Mas Camp was transformed into a paint playground. Very few were spared as the patrons wildly drenched each other with yellow, blue, grey and red paint and headed for the streets.

Meanwhile over at the LIME All-Island carnival it was fun, fun and more fun. Hundreds of yellow-painted soca revelers wined and waved rags to performances by Beenie Man and Machel Montano until five in the morning.

The willing crowd was dosed with water and paint at the start of the two performances. Beenie Man, a Jamaican deejay performed a 30-minute set whilst Montano was on stage for one hour and forty-five minutes.

Beenie Man silently bounced on-stage at two in the morning: His mic was too low to overcome the kick of drum and boom of bass. “We can’t hear you,” said a cigarette stand model in hot shorts mirroring the sentiments of the crowd. He continued performing for three songs before the stage technician entered to rectify the problem by switching his mic and balancing the settings.

Said Beenie to the crowd: “Can you hear me now?

Crowd: “Yes”

His set list included mostly current releases including Pickney Naw Hold You Down, We no Inna Weh Dem Inna, Whatever Me Like, No Talk to Long (Bounty I call You Name), Hmm Hmm, Rum and Red Bull, I’m Ok and so on.

Montano literally jumped on stage at 3:00 am and never stopped jumping until 4:45. He was flanked by the HD band, two rag waving patrons and two fellow soca artistes Zan and Patrice.

“It’s the first time I am in Jamaica for three years,” he stated. He performed songs including Advantage, One More Time, Torro, Fender, Bend Over, Put Your Hands Up, Big Truck and more. Montano, whose career spans 25 years, continues to influence that market’s music winning two major events this year including the International Soca Monarch competition and the Road March title. His 2011 success is due to his hit Trinidadian single Advantage which he sung as an introduction and as his closing song at Friday’s show.