The cur­tains came down on the in­au­gur­al To­ba­go Rhythm and Soul Fes­ti­val last night at the Pa­rade Grounds of the Dwight Yorke Sta­di­um. The grand fi­nale, dubbed Fu­sion, was a vi­brant cel­e­bra­tion of mu­sic and cul­ture.

De­spite the ab­sence of Bu­ju Ban­ton—who had to can­cel due to a per­son­al emer­gency—the event was still wide­ly re­gard­ed as a re­sound­ing suc­cess.

The fes­ti­val opened last Thurs­day with Melodies from Heav­en, a gospel con­cert at the Shaw Park Com­plex. The evening fea­tured per­for­mances by gospel pow­er­house Sinach, Samuel Medas, and the Voic­es of To­ba­go mass choir. The au­di­ence en­joyed a night of up­lift­ing mu­sic and spir­i­tu­al praise.

On Sat­ur­day, the Buc­coo Seafood and Jazz event of­fered pa­trons a de­light­ful blend of seafood and soul­ful mu­sic. Artistes such as Bri­an McK­night, Jon Seca­da, and Vaugh­nette Big­ford took the stage as at­ten­dees sa­vored lo­cal cui­sine and ex­plored a bustling craft mar­ket.

How­ev­er, the event faced some chal­lenges. De­lays and an ex­tend­ed pre-show caused the per­for­mances to run in­to the ear­ly morn­ing hours, prompt­ing po­lice to shut it down around 2 a.m. As a re­sult, some acts—in­clud­ing Mi­cal Te­ja—were un­able to per­form. Pa­trons al­so voiced con­cerns about sound qual­i­ty, lim­it­ed VIP ameni­ties, and oth­er lo­gis­ti­cal is­sues.

But the fi­nal night, Fu­sion, brought a pow­er­ful close to the fes­ti­val with a dy­nam­ic show­case of in­ter­na­tion­al mu­sic. Stephen Mar­ley stepped in for Bu­ju Ban­ton, de­liv­er­ing an en­er­getic per­for­mance that kept the crowd danc­ing and en­gaged. The at­mos­phere was elec­tric.

The fes­ti­val, which cost ap­prox­i­mate­ly TT$9 mil­lion, over­came its set­backs and was ul­ti­mate­ly well-re­ceived by both To­bag­o­ni­ans and vis­i­tors alike.

Ac­cord­ing to pa­trons, the To­ba­go Rhythm and Soul Fes­ti­val suc­cess­ful­ly high­light­ed the is­land’s rich cul­ture and mu­si­cal her­itage—leav­ing many with un­for­get­table mem­o­ries.