BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - THE curtains came down on the 14th Annual St. Kitts Music Festival sometime after 3:00 yesterday morning (Jun. 27), which saw the largest turnout over the three-night event.
Stevy Mahy was the first to touch the stage of the Warner Park venue and she got the patrons warmed up and prepared for the other acts.
She was followed by local Dancehall Gospel artiste Pepper Ranks, who, in his energy-filled performance, delivered a number of songs including one of the crowd’s favourite, ‘Pepper Was Never Like That’. This song was recently released and is fast becoming a popular hit.
C-Money, ‘de gals dem honey’, then took the stage and gave the ladies some of his sweetness. Making his mark at the annual event for the first time, he sang a number of songs including ‘SK Sweet’ and ‘My Wish’.
It was then Rolhensha’s time to shine, and she did so with songs like ‘Defend It’, ‘Tee’ and her resent collaboration with Gyptian, ‘Just a Lil Loving’. The crowd seemed to have been enjoying her performance as she was called back onstage for an encore.
Infamus was next, and at that time the crowd had swollen as patrons moved closer to the stage to enjoy his performance, as he entered with his famous phrase “Hey, hey, heyyy”.
One young lady was heard saying, “I going way to the front because I only came to see Infamus.” He performed songs like ‘Mr. Officer’, ‘Gonna Make it’ and ‘One Of These Days’. He also had a surprise package for his fans, who loudly cheered and sang along with him, when he, for the first time, performed the Soca version of his popular hit - ‘Sometimes I Feel Like Crying’.
Babyface, who was one of the highlights of the night for all lovers in the venue, came onstage bedecked in a black suit singing his heart away.
“Never Keep A Secret’, ‘Every Little Step I Take’, ‘All Night Long’ and ‘End Of The Road’ were among the hit songs he performed. The crowd was enjoying the performance of the legendary singer and songwriter and singing along to his songs, but was interrupted by a heavy downpour of rain which caused most of the attendees to run across the field in search of available shelter.
This, however, did not deter the singer from executing a great performance.
The rain continued to fall after Babyface’s performance and many people had decided to leave the venue. However, after approximately one hour delay, Jamaican dancehall icon Sizzla made his way onstage to bring the curtains down on the show.
As he approached the stage and began to sing, hundreds of patrons emerged from their shelters. But before he could have completed his opening number, there was a power outage that affected the electrical systems on the stage which caused the lights to go off. It also affected the sound but not the lighting facilities on the ground.
While the crowd braved the rain and sang ‘By the Rivers of Babylon’ to the sound of the Nyabingi drums, power was restored after half an hour and Sizzla entertained the fans with a number of his hits for almost an hour.
The 14th Annual St. Kitts Music Festival took place from Thursday, June 24 to 26. The three-night had featured the Third World Band, Grand Masters Band, King Starsheild, King Ellie Matt, Bunji Garlin, Faye-Ann Lyons, Capleton, Fethi Tabet, Kymani Marley, Jah Fire, SMI, Fabolous, Tarrus Riley, Stevy Mahy, Peper Ranks, C-Money, Rolhensha, Infamus, Baby Face and Sizzla.
