15th Annual St.Kitts Music Festival showcases stellar performers
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ZIZ NEWSROOM, BASSETERRE, June 26, 2011
Soca and Reggae on Night 1
The first night of music festival is usually soca and calypso or “jump up night”. This year however the spicy soca was balanced by rootsy and groovy reggae tunes.
First up was the Kore Band, being fronted by Gharlic who gave a high energy performance. He was followed by X-man who gave the audience a thrill with his hit “Food All Over”.
King Konris was next onstage who performed a reggae version of his hit “Unstoppable Force” then progressed to a few other hits before capping it off with the high energy soca version of “Unstoppable Force”. That version had the audience bouncing and running around the venue under his direction.
Calypso icon Mic Stokes was next on stage giving the patrons a look back at his repertoire that has spanned decades. After his performance Mr. Stokes told ZIZ that he was surprised to see youngsters singing and dancing to his older hits.
Next on stage was legendary reggae performer Bunny Wailer. His extensive set thrilled the audience with many of his hits and even a cover of Bob Marley tunes.
Ub40’s Ali Campbell had the audience grooving to tunes such as “Kingston Town”, “Here I Am Baby” and “Red Red Wine”.
Small Axe Band and Nu Vybes Band were the final acts of the opening night and they kept the audience dancing into the wee hours of the morning.
Friday night artists love Kittitian crowd
The second night of the 15th annual St Kitts music festival concluded after 3am, with all of the artistes speaking highly of the Kittitian audience.
A dancehall and reggae mixture exploded at Warner Park when seven artistes rocked the music festival stage.
Taking to the stage first was the reggae legend, Yellowman, who rocked the crowd with some of his old favorites such as “Bam Bam” and “King of the Dancehall.”
Jamaican reggae artiste, Cocoa Tea was the second artiste to perform, bringing back that old school reggae with his hits songs “Waiting in Vein” and “She Loves Me Now”.
Cocoa Tea was followed by the British reggae vocalist of Jamaican descent, Maxi Priest. He hit the audience with songs that remain popular to this day, such as “That Girl” and “Wild World”. His son, Marvin Priest, made a special appearance on stage.
One of Jamaica’s most famous up and coming dancehall artistes, black ryno, then changed the mood of the night, performing songs like “Bike Back” and “Wine And Dip”. The young artiste said he really liked the response he received from the local crowd.
Another rising Jamaican artiste, Konshens, says he really connected with the audience during his performance. Konshens brought out songs like “realest song” and “Real Friends Dem”.
One of the most energetic performances of the night came from producer turned singer, Demarco. He engaged the audience by inviting a few lucky ladies onstage to dance to his songs “Falling Soldier”, “Standing Soldiers” and “I Love My Life.”
Jamaican reggae singing sensation, Gyptian, brought the curtains down on day two of the music festival. The internationally acclaimed artiste took the crowd for a ride with his chart topping songs “I Can Feel Your Pain”, “Beautiful Lady” and “Mama Don’t Cry.”
He too says the Kittitian audience treated him very well.
Saturday night brings down the house
A solid performance from last nights cast brought the curtains down on the 15th St.kitts Music Festival which drew a huge crowd to the Cricket Stadium for the finale.
Of the three nights of the festival last night saw a packed out witnessing the East Vs West, the Commodores, Fantasia and Jah Cure performing at their best.
All of the acts showed their appreciation for the support given by stating that it was one of their best performances in the Caribbean and they loved the energy of the crowd.
Much appreciation was showed to the Commodores who brought some old school to the festival with a number of their Grammy winning songs from days of old that made the group very famous around the world.
Starting by taking off her heels, Fantasia kicked it into full gear requesting that the music fest committee remove the barriers to allow fans to come closer to the stage.
She performed her newer hits and some classics with passion and vocal acrobatics that wowed the audience.
Jah Cure was the final artiste who kept the crowd on their feet, specifically the ladies, until around three o’clock in the morning.
Also entertaining the crowd was the first ever DJ competition winner, “Chalice Sound” who played a wide repertoire of music just before Jah Cure took to the stage.
All in all the fifteenth edition of the St. Kitts Music Festival went down quite well as the people went out and gave their support to the international and local artiste.