BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - LAST night (Jun. 27), the first night of the 17th Annual St. Kitts Music Festival, attracted an enormous crowd to the Warner Park Cricket Stadium where patrons experienced a terrific performance by Trinidadian Soca powerhouse couple Bunji Garlin and Fay-Ann Lyons as well as an array of performances by other regional and local acts.
The other acts were 2013 Power Soca Monarch, Super Blue, Small Axe Band, Nu Vybes Band International (De Sugar Band), Grand Masters, Kollision Band and the Kore Band from Nevis.
Kollision brought an electrifying end to last night’s event, dubbed ‘Jump Up Night’, shortly after 3:00 a.m. before a very impressive crowd that remained at the Stadium for the final act. And among the songs the band dished out were 'Hustle', 'Big Shake' and 'Armed and Dangerous'.
Two highlights saw band members accompanied by female dancers performing the movements for the popular dance craze 'Gangnam Style' and also the band's 'Like Jackie Chan' song.
The self-acclaimed 'Sweetest Band in the World', Small Axe, got things moving top-notch style, starting with one their hottest song to date called 'Hardware'. Obviously, that was the perfect song to herald the night’s activity for the music hungry patrons, among who were some that sang along while gyrating.
The band's performance, which clocked approximately one hour, included other songs such as 'Hog Dey Be' and 'Soap Drop', as well ‘Pussy cat a bother Me’ and 'Watch De Creep'.
When Small Axe jammed their Road March song DCH, many ladies were seen doing the Drop, Cover, Hold on movement as they dipped low, covered their heads and held on to the barriers that were in place to restrict the crowd.
Two regular festival patrons, one local and the other from St. Thomas, said they thought Small Axe’s performance was excellent. Mac, the local patron, said, “They were so good that I felt I could have gone home after their performance…I was very pleased.”
The Kore Band from Nevis kept the energy going as they opened with an instrumental. The band did a diverse blend of music genres including Soca and Dancehall.
Star singers of the band, 'Golden Voice' Delly Ranks, Ali Dee and Garlic, had the crowd grooving to their different styles of performance as they took turns sharing the stage.
When Nu Vybes Band International hit the stage, the festive excitement took to a hyped level, with the band leaving their fans and music lovers almost breathless from the superb jam session.
The front section of the crowd definitely got thicker as the Sugar Band’s fans immediately went wild with readiness to get on ‘bad’.
Nu Vybes emerged onstage belting out their past hit tunes such as 'Don't Go Crazy', 'Know what we Doing' and 'Carnival Lady'.
The band, during their performance, added their hit tune 'Oxygen', which saw three female dancing onstage wearing oxygen masks.
The performance of Fay-Ann Lyons and Bunji Garlin lasted just over an hour, and they were joined by 2013 Soca Monarch Super Blue, who is Lyons’ father.
Faye-Ann Lyons captured the crowd with a very sexy and sultry performance and a look that matched her performance to a ‘T’…with her Mohawk hairstyle. She was bedecked in a black leather jacket, paired with a high and extra low black dress that was laced with satin white ribbons and black pumps, which she later changed into animal print flats.
Her husband was also fashionably dressed in his black dress suit. And both complemented each other.
Bunji Garlin emerged onstage belting out his song 'Differentology'.
There was definitely onstage chemistry between the husband and wife pair which the audience loved! Fay-Ann Lyons, at one point, teasingly gyrated on him as she sang ‘Get On’ and ‘Misbehave’.
Also during their performance, the powerhouse soca couple took ownership of the audience to see who had the better section of people. Fay-Ann Lyons took the right section and Bunji Garlin the left. Both sections of the audience were commended for their cooperation and performance.
Fay-Ann Lyons also incorporated some Reggae and Pop vibes into her performance.
Using a stand microphone, she belted out’ Putting up a Resistance’ and ‘Rockaway’ by internationally-acclaimed Jamaican Reggae superstar Beres Hammond.
She even did 'Locked out Heaven' by famous American Pop singer Bruno Mars.
The duo also did songs by the Burning Flames Band from Antigua and Barbuda.
Fay-Ann Lyons introduced her dad as the Soca Monarch 2013 from Trinidad.
Appropriately dressed in a blue Superman T-shirt with a fancy touch of white dress suit with colorful embellishments and one blue dangling earring and blue head scarf, Super Blue performed for about 15 minutes singing three groovy-type songs; following which Fay-Ann Lyons and Bunji Garlin re-emerged onstage.
Unfortunately for many fans, Super Blue did not sing his 'Fantastic Friday' hit.
While onstage, nearing the end of their performance, Bunji Garlin took photographs of the crowd and encouraged each audience member to do likewise and share the images on popular social media networks Instagram and facebook.
The next act was the Grand Masters Band, which had the crowd bouncing as they dished out songs like 'Bounce A Gal', 'Hollywood' and 'None Ah Dem'. The band treated their fans to a near one hour performance.
While performing their hit tune 'From De Jungle', fans started to behave like ‘party animals’.
The night’s event was hosted by DJ Kevvy Kev from Florida and Piece-A-Man from St. Kitts.
