Claudine Housen, Staff Reporter

The women were wet and wild at the Red Stripe Reggae Sumfest blazing beach party which saw many old and new dance hits being played. -Claudine Housen/Staff photographer

WESTERN BUREAU:

The belly skins, b-riders and two-piece bathing suits came out of the closet for the Red Stripe Reggae Sumfest beach party at Tropical Beach in Montego Bay on Sunday.

The first session in the Red Stripe Reggae Sumfest 2007 entertainment series, the more than 12-hour long beach party gave patrons a taste of what is to come later this weekend as the adept DJs and Fab5 took patrons through the paces from about 2:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon to about 2:50 a.m. on Monday. Hard core dancehall, reggae, hip hop, lover's rock, soca, you name it, somebody played it.

The marathon warm-up party, which saw the DJs doing two sets each, started off with Mix Master Marvin who dropped tunes like Bounty Killer's Benz and Bimma, Caan Believe Mi Eye, Chaka Demus & Pliers' Murder She Wrote, General Degree's Traffic Blocking and TOK's Eagles Cry, before turning over the tables to Pieces' Craig Ross at about 4:50 p.m.

Changing Pace

Slowing down the pace a bit, Ross started off with R. Kelly's Step in The Name of Love, before going to hip hop with Naughty By Nature's O.P.P, Tina Turner's Simply the Best and Jimmy Cliff's Reggae Night and others before he had to pause for a Fab5 sound check at about 5:46 p.m. When he resumed, he rocked the tables with soca hits such as Worky and Tiny Winy.

He was followed by Pieces juggler 'Corey' who, alongside DJ Enzo, took the party up another notch with songs such as Wayne Wonder's Joyride, Tanya Stephens' Ready Fi Dis, Frisco Kid's Rubbers and Beenie Man's Slam, through dance songs like Bogle and World Dance before handing over to ZJ Liquid at about 7:15 p.m. Liquid rocked the tables with Sean Kingston's Beautiful Girl and the Jamaican remix, Nah Mad Ova None, before relinquishing to Fab5 on a second stage at about 8:00 p.m.

After bringing hits like Greetings, Jamaican Woman, Shaving Cream and Bob Marley's One Love, the band backed upcoming artistes Zion Rass, Serial Killer and White Knight of Flankers before Wyclef's Refugee All Star Sound System, featuring Sean Madhouse, started on the turntables.

After the sun went down, the T-shirts came off and the hot gyal dancing contests began with a walk out (for the foreigners in the house), and a dutty wine and hot wuk contest each with a prize of a ticket to Sumfest.

High Energy Tunes

An event that called for stamina, the cycle then repeated itself with each DJ doing his second set with high energy tunes from Elephant Man, Mavado, Bounty, Vybz Kartel, Beenie Man and Macka Diamond.

For an open-air event, the party got hot as persons danced until their bodies shone with sweat. Sean Madhouse closed the show about 2:50 a.m. and encouraged the patrons to continue their own party at home.