These two men seem infected with the spirit of Jamaica Carnival 2004 as they dance wildly to one of their favourite songs at 'Red Night', held last Friday night at the Fayor's Entertainment Centre in Mandeville, Manchester. - Carlington Wilmot /Freelance Photographer ANDEVILLERS' LOVE to party. So, when the sinfully sweet 'Supreme Ventures Jamaica Carnival 2004' rolled into town last Friday night they got the perfect opportunity to let loose and get on bad.
The night was titled 'Red Night', and it was indeed red hot almost too hot to handle.
Held at the Fayor's Entertainment Centre just outside the town square, Red Night was electrifying to say the least. The hundreds of patrons who turned up, many of whom were decked out in the party's required theme colour of red, were pumped full of energetic soca songs that kept them wining and gyrating all night. The energy level inside the 'small' venue was tremendously high.
Byron Lee and the Dragonaires ensured that the vibes never waned as they unleashed hit after sizzling hit to patrons who just couldn't get enough. As these very lively Dragonaires danced and pranced on-stage, they seemed to spread a cloak ofexcitement over an already steaming venue, which in itself ensured that their commands to wave, jump, walk or run were easily obeyed.
HEART-WRENCHING
As if things couldn't get any hotter, Roger George intensified the mood with a heart-wrenching twist to the intro of Kevin Lyttle's chart-scorching Turn Me On soon after taking the microphone at 12:15 a.m.
The ladies looked longingly as he crooned to a female patron, and screamed wildly as his voice rolled smoothly over the infectious lyrics. As for the woman being serenaded, well, she turned blushing into a whole new artform.
HEATING UP
But, believe it or not, the party was just heating up. Just shy of 1:00 a.m., DJ Sunshine of Irie FM 'turned the party on its ear' with a varied mix of conscious reggae and hardcore dancehall songs. Patrons, not surprisingly, welcomed Sunshine's rays of reggae, and automatically changed their dancing rhythms to dancehall. Opening with a few well-known reggae inspirations from Sizzla, Junior Reid, George Nooks and Chuck Fenda, Sunshine then trailed into raunchy territory as she dropped tunes like Follow Di Arrow, Pump Up Har..., Anaconda and Press Trigger.
DJ Sunshine handled the turntable well and interacted with the crowd even better. She showed them how she did her 'dainty wine', encouraging women at the front to do likewise. She then launched into a litany of dancing instructions, which caused a sea of movement to flow from all corners of the venue.
LIVELY COMMANDS
Her lively commands also prepared her fans for popular dancing tracks like Ele's Higher Level, Jiggy and Crazy Hype. It was Vybz Kartel's Tek B..., however that injected a surge of sexually motivated dance moves and had women literally dancing out of their skimpy outfits.
Patrons went wild, many getting into the various positions suggested by the song. Sunshine ended her hour-long set as she began, with reflective reggae tunes by Richie Spice and Garnett Silk.
In addition to the music, there were interesting distractions inside Fayor's, in particular the booths of the title sponsors. While some tried their luck at Supreme Ventures' Wheel of Fortune, a great many others flocked the C&W booth to purchase their desired mobiles. C&W did such great sales that by midnight only two types of cellular phones were left the Sony Ericcson T316 and T306. There were also a number of give-aways from C&W including rags, a T-shirt, a Motorola E380 cellular phone and even a goodie bag to a lady with the most 'vibes'.
