Sweet Lime Restau­rant, lo­cat­ed on South Trunk Road, La Ro­maine, will be launch­ing its first an­nu­al Parang Con­test. Nine com­pet­ing Parang groups come from all over Trinidad and will present their songs at the eatery every Sat­ur­day, be­tween No­vem­ber 21 and De­cem­ber 5. On each week­end, three bands face off against each oth­er, re­quired to per­form 45 min­utes each, in front of a live au­di­ence. Win­ners will be de­ter­mined by au­di­ence votes and the win­ning bands will re­turn to com­pete against each oth­er in the semi­fi­nals on De­cem­ber 12-13.

The fi­nal will be held on De­cem­ber 19, with the win­ner re­ceiv­ing the grand prize of $10,000. It's not just Sweet Lime South hav­ing all the fun this yule­tide sea­son, though. Its north­ern sis­ter restau­rant is pre­sent­ing the best of parang every Fri­day evening, af­ter work. Last Fri­day's fea­ture act was Love Bunch, and this Fri­day Los Hom­bres Sex­u­ales is billed to hold the spot­light at a spe­cial Carib/Red Bull af­ter-work pro­mo­tions evening. Sweet Lime on Ari­api­ta Av­enue, Wood­brook, is al­so host­ing its month­ly Wine & Jazz evening, to­mor­row at 7 pm, fea­tur­ing Mar­cus Steel and Fran­cis Prime.