An­ge­lo Mar­celle

A new prece­dent for wa­ter fetes was set in Ari­ma on Au­gust 7, dur­ing Bor­ough Day cel­e­bra­tions–a con­tin­u­a­tion of the I Am Lo­cal theme. What start­ed as a dri­ve to pro­mote lo­cal en­ter­tain­ers for one month, has now stretched through­out the en­tire school va­ca­tion. With more than ten lo­cal acts to per­form and on­ly one night, the evening was set to be mem­o­rable. And so it was. Iron­i­cal­ly, rain fell for most of the morn­ing on that day, but not a drop fell from the heav­ens by the time the par­ty start­ed. Pa­trons were dressed most­ly in shorts, flip flops, and biki­ni tops, and lined front stage as wa­ter was blast­ed out of a mas­sive hose, soak­ing every­one with­in close prox­im­i­ty. Those who dared took a full blast.

Mar­lon Ash­er and the Hi Grade Fam­i­ly start­ed of the ac­tion. The Mil­lion­aire Fam­i­ly, who just re­turned from per­form­ing in Boston with lead singer Or­lan­do Oc­tave, had the ladies in the palms of their hands. Or­lan­do un­leashed 'Darky', while Makavel­li sang his 2010 so­ca de­but Bub­ble Bub­ble. The lat­ter has just re­leased a col­lab­o­ra­tion with reg­gae/so­ca artiste, Buffy. Known for his unedit­ed lyrics, Ari­ma boy, Squeezy Rankin, had the packed venue jump­ing and punch­ing the sky as he sang his lat­est hit Nah Play We Tune. THis was an­oth­er iron­ic mo­ment for the show, as this sin­gle ad­dress­es the tri­als lo­cal per­form­ers face when try­ing to get their mu­sic played on the air­waves.

Based on the qual­i­ty of the per­for­mances, Boom Cham­pi­ons ra­dio CEO O'Brien Haynes, made it clear the mu­sic in­dus­try in this coun­try was ripe for de­vel­op­ment. "Be­sides the mon­e­tary as­pect of the event, I be­lieve that Trinidad and To­ba­go has the tal­ent to match any mu­sic that comes out of the in­ter­na­tion­al mar­ket." O'Brien agrees that the mu­sic in­dus­try in this coun­try is treat­ed as if it is a hus­tle, rather than a busi­ness, and he has made it his re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to change the par­a­digm. The sta­tion has promised to play an equal amount of lo­cal con­tent. Al­so per­form­ing were, Denise Bel­fon, Prophet Ben­jamin, Swapi, Ter­ri Lyons and 3 Suns. Ra­dio per­son­al­i­ties Jah­moun and Sun­ny Bling host­ed the show and gave a sam­ple of their singing abil­i­ty.

Left:Ra­dio per­son­al­i­ties, Jah­moun Men­doza and Sun­ny Bling, give some com­ic re­lief. Right: On the oth­er side of the cam­era is T&T Guardian fea­ture writer Aba Luke, right, and friends.