Kesi Asher, Staff Reporter
Richie Stephens and General Degree perform at the Port Royal Seafood Festival, held on Sunday at the Old Coal Wharf, Port Royal.
THE FIFTH staging of the Port Royal Seafood Festival took place at the Old Coal Wharf on Sunday.
"This is the ideal place in terms of crowd control and the venue has potential for growth," said Philip Paulwell, Member of Parliament for Port Royal, and chairman of the organising committee.
The festival, which was to be held on Heroes Day, was postponed several times due to the inclement weather. While the rescheduling affected the crowd support, the event proved to be fun nonetheless.
YOUNG PERFORMER DJ QQ
Young DJ QQ rocked the crowd with his popular songs, Poverty and Better Must Come. His stage presence was very mature as he paid respect to the females. "I want to big up all my beautiful ladies," he said, and in a burst of energy he began to gyrate his waist, much to the excitement of the little girls.
Following his display of early manhood, he sang Never Know The Use of Her as the young girls at the front of the stage pushed and shoved to get closer to the stage.
He was later joined onstage by Chuck Fender who performed Best Mama, to a moderate reception. He then launched into Murderer, Good Over Evil and I Swear, and the cheers grew in numbers. QQ and Chuck Fender closed with a rendition of their new song Govern It.
SOMETHING FOR THE WOMEN
The women also got their chance to scream when Richie Stevens took the stage. He performed Take Me Away, I'd Rather have Bad Times With You, I'm a Winner, Tra La La and Screechie Joe, to the obvious delight of the women.
During his starlight performance, Richie Stevens called General Degree, who added some more excitement to the show. Degree took us back to Traffic Blocking, Bo Dum Bo Dum, You Tink it a go guh so, Gwaan Yah Gyal, before he moved into Fire Fire and his latest hit If You Short a Da Ting Deh.
In2nation, who also acted as the backing band for Richie Stevens, General Degree, and Hush, performed a variety of dancehall and reggae songs.
The Squad One Dancers brought the vibe with their dancing classes and creative dance moves. The four-member group, which consists of one female, did several dance numbers on stage. They taught the crowd the 'Willy Bounce', 'Summer Bounce' and two dances of their own, 'Squady Bounce' and 'Big Bird'.
SOMETHING FOR THE CHILDREN
DJ Squeeze manned the turn tables and Jenny Jenny was the MC for the latter half of the show. She also dealt with the give-always, which included gifts from Digicel, the RJR Communications Group, Jamaica Flour Mills, Red Stripe and Supreme Ventures.
There was the 'Out and Bad' children's dance competition and the 'Tape it and Wuk it' adult competition, where women danced with their feet tied with tape.
However, the festival was not without its drawbacks. A temporary loss of tent lights proved unsafe for the patrons, while there was too much vehicular traffic in the festival area where children were running around.
Minister Paulwell attributed the traffic to the stalls, whose goods had to go to and fro throughout the festival.
