Jamaica carnival is really getting its life together. This years trip was pure marvelousness. First, let’s talk price, Jamaica carnival is so dayym
affordable. Even though I don’t really
like to drop $$$ I’m going to let you get a peek at the carnival spreadsheet
that I live by. Trinidad carnival CAN NOT be topped,
but if you don’t want to drop $3,000-$4,000 on TnT carnival then Jamaica is an
awesome alternative. The fetes and Road March tshirt
together in Jamaica cost me $500. $500 won’t pay for my flight to TnT, $500
won’t cover all the fetes in TnT, $500 will only cover 1 ½ nights lodging in
TnT. If you want a JA costume that’s $300, but $300 will only pay for your TnT
costume deposit.
Thursday night headed to Pandemonium right down the street
from our hotel. The great thing
about fete’n in the Caribbean is that all the fetes are in the wonderful
outdoors. Performances by Machel, Mr.
Killa and Shaggy and then my favorite part… the paint & powda. The rest of
the homies went to the Frenchmen party Blocko, but I love paint and powda too
much to miss Pandemonium. Mr. Killa had
everyone thoroughly entertained with his usually crazy azz antics.
Friday afternoon we headed over to the Kingston Yacht Club to
sail away on the Wine Down Cruise. That
fete was so awesome it required a blog & video of its own!!! Candy Coated Events & Caesar's Army really took JA carnival up a couple notches this year.
Knowing the busy Saturday we had ahead, we should have went
to sleep after the cruise, but we had a pool party at the hotel instead. Made some bootleg mimosas of Moet, juice and white
rum. (Funny thing about over proof rum
in Jamaica. If you ask for dark rum you
will get 80 proof Appleton. If you want over proof rum, they simply call it
white rum. LOLOL) Anyway, ended up getting about 3 hours of sleep and it was
painful as hell getting up for the next fete. To quote DJ Quick – Tonight, “Soon as I felt
it comin on I should quit, it's true that a drunk ain't shit!” Even
though we brought our own food, music and alcohol the hotel was kind enough to
keep bringing us ice to help keep our party going. Love the Spanish Court Hotel
2am Saturday we headed to Caesar’s Army AMBush. Now if you read my other blogs you know 1) I love jouvert 2) I love Caesar’s Army. This one was a
mini version of the Trinidad AMBush with only 300 guests. No complaints about the reduced # of
guests. It was a much smoother package
pick up process and the AMBush start was much quicker. Machel and I think Skinny Fabulous performed,
I tend to wander off and dance with the water truck so it’s possible that there
were other performers. The liquor was
flowing, OMG the liquor was flowing, GOOD GRIEF the liquor was flowing. Even tho we thoroughly covered ourselves with baby oil before the
start, that lime green paint had us all looking like we had jaundice
afterwards. Everything we touched Saturday turned yellow, F*ck it!!!
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| Caesar's Army AMBush Jamaica |
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| Dei Musicale |
Left AMBush around 7am, headed to the hotel for a quick
shower and change of clothes and then straight to the Sunrise Breakfast fete. The
breakfast fete went until around 11am, I was
pretty useless there (was regretting the pool party the night before). Ate breakfast, had
a beer and tried to stay out of the blazing sun. The fellas skipped AMBush, were at Sunrise much longer and confirmed that the breakfast fete was as
awesome as it was last year.
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| The fellas |
Because some people never learn, we headed straight the
hotel pool after the breakfast fete for another pool party. To quote DJ Quick again, “I thought you wasn't drinkin no more… Yeah right, we doin the
same ol shit tonite.” The fellas were even kind enough to bring us a sh*t load
of jerk chicken which we promptly tore the *BEEP* up!!!
We did manage to get some rest Saturday afternoon before we
headed to the Frenchmen Bazodee fete.
Just like last year Bazodee was fabulously upscale. Like 10 different food stations with every
type of Caribbean food your heart could desire.
The best DJs and lots of Caribbean artists mingling in the crowd.
Sunday Road March: JA carnival is a little different than other carnivals
because there is only one band “Bacchanal Jamaica”. According to LehWeGo the band is about 3,500
people strong. That was about the size
of my band in Trinidad. I like the one
band concept. If you get a late start like we do, you don’t have to waste an
hour looking for your particular band.
You just have to go to the parade route and find the only band on the
route. I can’t remember if there were 4 music
and 4 drink trucks or 5, but there was no problem getting drinks and great
vybz. JA allows t-shirt sections which
is usually a NO NO with big carnivals.
My only problem is lunch.
They only give you 30 minutes for lunch.
Lunch is usually the time were we take a quick power nap. We got to the lunch site at 2pm and they
announced that they would be departing at 2:30.
You best believe they left at 2:30 with about 50% of the masqueraders
still inside eating. I was running
behind the last truck with a piece of chicken in my hand, Just Kidding! The
road march starts at 10am and they go until around 10pm maybe even
later. Ima “G” but I can’t drink and
dance in the blazing sun for 12 hours straight.
We got to the las lap fete around 7pm.
I ate dinner, had a drink and then literally said to my friends, “I have nothing left to give to today, I’m
going back to the hotel.” No pool party
that night, I was out like a baby.
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| Machel Montano |
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| DJ Private Ryan |
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| Bacchanal Jamaica |
My homies flew out crack of dawn Monday, I booked a late
flight and chillaxed by the pool all day.
I thought about going to the Bob Marley Museum, but I decided to just
keep my azz behind the secure gates of the Spanish Court Hotel with my Port-a-Party.
Another successful carnival to ward off my tabanca. So I shall now leave you with the recap
video. See ya next year!
If you ever decide to hit up JA carnival www. LehWeGo.com is where you are going to
find centralized information.
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