Bacchanal's opening night draws big crowd

Sadeke Brooks, Staff Reporter

Patrons turned out in their numbers for Bacchanal's opening night on Friday at the new Mas Camp located at the National Stadium in Kingston.

Although new, the venue had a familiar feel with all the booths and bars in their regular spots. However, the location seemed a little smaller than the previous location at Oxford Road in New Kingston.

Though this year's theme is 'Future Shock', only the Digicel and Appleton booths and the Smirnoff bar captured that futuristic feel.

Nonetheless, patrons enjoyed the party from the get-go as ZJ Bambino got things going with songs like Swappi's Bucket, Iwer George's Come To Meh and Skinny Fabulous' Duracel. When Bambino played Palance, a favourite from last year, he encouraged dancing, jumping and singing.

Back To Basic followed with several soca songs like Machel Montano's Gal Bend Ova and Mr Fête and Kes the Band's Front of Me. The disc jock also gave patrons a taste of older songs like Swinging Engine and Allison Hinds' Togetherness with a lot of scratching and mixing.

Few dancehall

Bambino was to return to the mixing tables and when he did, women lost control to Lil Rick's Go Dung. This was followed by Mr Vegas' Bruck It Down, which was one of the few dancehall songs played throughout the night. The selector played a string of mostly new soca songs that didn't seem to resonate well with the audience, most of whom took the time to socialise. With the party falling into somewhat of a lull, Bambino went back for the tried and proven, relying on older songs like Allison Hinds' Ride Mi Riddim and Iwer Goerge's Water, at which point patrons threw liquid into the air. He also played up-tempo soca songs from dancehall artistes like Assassin and Beenie Man.

As expected, the party ended at 2 a.m though patrons seemed unwilling to call it a night.