MORE THAN once, the crowd at the 'Port Royal Seafood Festival' on Sunday, proved that maybe Jamaica has gone 'mad, sick, head no good'. When DJ Sunshine took over the wheels of steel halfway through the concert portion of the festival, anyone would have been hardpressed to prove that the screaming mass was indeed sane.
DJ Sunshine came to the stage blazing with Greetings. She quickly took the enjoyment to the next level when she called on the 'Don Dadda' with Under Pressure before swinging into One Big Family, and One Blood.
Evidently, she knew how to keep the audience under her control. She only gave just a taste of each song, just enough to whet the crowd's appetite before slinging the next scorcher at them. She had all the buttons to make them scream, and was not afraid to use them.
SCREAMS
Her set ended, with screams that had nothing to do with her selections however. The hosts of that segment, Paula Ann Porter and Jennifer 'Jenny Jenny' Small, had been joking about getting a dance-off from the politicians and heads of corporations in the venue. Toward the set, they got their wish, when Minister Phillip Paulwell was ushered on to the stage. The audience went wild as the minister tried to balance between the river and the bank in the very popular dance.
However, the signs that sanity had probably left the building came from earlier in the evening. During their set, Fab Five took the audience through a myriad of 'dances', some of which involved both cutting off and throwing away the head.
It would take Christopher Daley and Donald 'Ice Man' Anderson to show where the real madness was, however. The comedy duo had the audience howling with laughter from the beginning of their set, doing what Jamaicans do best, 'tek bad tings mek joke'.
DANCE CRAZE
In keeping with the dance craze, they introduced two of their own. First they brought in the 'site di pot hole' which was of course, followed by the very logical, 'lick eena di pothole' for those times when one is ambushed by three or more holes on the same stretch. As Daley and Anderson jerked with the impact of falling into the pothole, one woman in the audience laughed, "Is a big 'ole dat!"
From the pothole dance, the two turned their attention, to the recent shoot-out in Canterbury, St. James, which had resulted in three deaths. Actually the incident also had its own dance. "Ladies and gentlemen, do not try this dance at home," Anderson cautioned at the end of it. However, as a result of the strain of doing this dance, Anderson was forced to create another, the 'tek a break'.
Under the guise that they were investigating "What went down in Canterbury town", the two then conducted mock interviews. For this Anderson impersonated Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, Renato Adams, and Elephant Man. The audience loved it, screaming with delight at the responses. "A same so im oulda gwaan!" one man yelled, when Anderson shizzled into his Elephant Man impersonation.
HENRY MORGAN COMES ALIVE
The event festival's theme was 'Henry Morgan Comes Alive' and the group of drummers, made up of Akwaabe, L'Acadco and Kingston Drummers made the theme a part of their performance dressing as a very motley crew of pirates. Along with some very impressive drumming, the group also included stilt walking and a mock duel in their performance.
The night was brought to an end, by Tony Rebel who performed If Jah Is Standing By My Side in first English, then Spanish and French.
By the time the rebellious one took the stage, many of the patrons (especially those with children) had taken the gate prize drawings as a hint to go home. As such, Rebel performed to a reduced audience. This had no impact on his energy level however as he swung between old favourites such as Fresh Vegetable and the newer hits like Just Friends.
STELLAR JOB
The festival had also included performances by Queen Ifrika, Nadine Sutherland and Mark Stephenson. Earlier, Owen Ellis had done a stellar job of keeping the audience entertained, as he performed his duties as host.
Henry Morgan never showed, but the mass of garbage strewn on the ground as the audience strolled out of the venue spoke clearly: another seafood festival had passed through the town.
