ICM Fest – A Brilliantly Executed Cultural Affair

 

Story & Photos by: Lady Cham & Mr. Cham - West Indian Times

The 8^th staging of Anchor/Minott Foundation’s International Caribbean Music Festival took place on Saturday, October 7^th 2006, in Miami’s Bicentennial Park during the city’s busiest weekend of the year.  The festival was held during Miami Carnival weekend which also happened to be Columbus Day weekend and there were plenty of activities going on throughout South Florida.  We checked in with the vendors in the park as they were setting up and they were anxious as to what the turn out would be this year because  there were so many changes with the festival. 

“Bwoy, mi nuh know how it ah go work dis time, dem have name change, month change and hardly no Reggae artists, pure Soca artist, mi nuh know bout dat,” stated a vendor from New York named Gloria.  She, like the others were all praying for a good turnout and a good show to bring vibes into the park and put the patrons in a buying mood.

 

It was a beautiful afternoon, blue skies and not a cloud in sight and as the patrons milled into the park you could tell that this was a different crowd from the usual at this festival. 

 

Typically you would see two to three times as many Jamaican flags as any other Island but not this time.  There were flags from all over the Caribbean and in abundance.  It was clear that the lovers of Soca were piling in to see Rupee, Alison Hinds, Machel Montano, Bunji Garlin and the other Soca acts.  Of course there were reggae lovers in attendance but mingling with the eclectic crowd was weird.  Were we at a Reggae show or a Soca show?  Was everyone going to be satisfied?  We soon found out we were at a brilliantly staged Caribbean show that had something for everyone!  There was an abundance of Dancehall Reggae, Soca, R&B, Hip-Hop and Conscious Reggae.  Upcoming artists such as Rastafarian ‘Joseph Quote’ and ‘Dez I Boyd’, performed timely sets and got good responses from the crowd.  Bajan artist Rupee was hot and heated up the park with hits like, ‘Tempted To Touch’, ‘What Happens In The Party’, and ‘Jump’. 

Soca artist Wassi did an excellent job as an MC for the show and showed what an extremely talented artist she is as she performed with Rupee. 

 

 

When Alison Hinds hit the stage you could hear a huge roar from the crowd, they loved Alison and she was energetic and gave them everything and more, making sure to ‘Roll It Gyal!’ 

 

Jamaican Tami Chin was not on stage for long but did well with the time allotted and as a fellow female Jamaican artist she out shone Jovi Rockwell by far. 

 

Reggae group Voicemail gave an outstanding performance in which they involved the crowd to the point where one of the group jumped off stage and intermingled with the crowd, dancing with the patrons as they took the vibes to a higher level.  

Bunji Garlin outperformed everyone (except Sizzla) at the festival!  Bunji was making up songs as the night went on, he was singing about ICM, the crowd and everything around him.  Bunji had the crowd in a frenzy with his rendition of Ghetto Story, his Bob Marley favorites, Oldies but Goodies and Soca.  Bunji as a Trinidadian really surprised many reggae fans who now have a new found respect for him.

 

Machel Montano was hilarious on stage and like Bunji gave the crowd a mixture of all types of music and did it with energy and flair, he really knew how to work the crowd and with his charming smile he could do no wrong. 

 

 

 

Jovi Rockwell performed after Machel and she just did not seem to have any vibes during her performance even though she had hype man Andrew D with her!  It was like she was going through the motions and one patron in the crowd remarked that “she has on a lovely short skirt though”.  Her lyrics were good but the crowd just was not feeling her after Machel Montano who admittedly was a hard act to follow. 

Red Rat was hilarious, everyone laughed at his acting, his performance and even if you have seen his act before it still has you in stitches.  The Rat was the ultimate professional even though he had constant MIC problems throughout his set.  At one point he brought on his dancer from Jamaica and also a young singer named ‘Sasanya’ who had a really lovely voice.  After the Rat performed, one dancehall lover stated “Mi neva have no ratings fi Red Rat before but after dis performance mi rate him pon ah difarent level.”

During the next intermission a young man was given the opportunity to show what he could do as an artist and blew it big time!  We don’t know his name, only that he made no sense and was booed big time.  The good thing is that people don’t know who he was and so he might be able to get on someone else’s stage in the future.

Wayne Wonder happened to be the unfortunate artist to go on stage after the no name man and there were lingering boos which passed over to his performance.  However, after a couple of tunes, Wayne won over the crowd with hits like ‘No Letting Go.’ By this time it was 11:30pm, the park closes at midnight and still Morgan Heritage and Sizzla had not performed. 

Morgan Heritage minus sister Una, came out and spent precious minutes setting up their tabernacle on stage.  They did approximately four songs and by the time you were getting into them, they had to leave the stage as it was now 11:50pm and Sizzla was yet to perform. 

Sizzla’s band then came out and quickly set up and Sizzla touched the stage at approx 12:01am and he went right into his song set, with a smooth mellow, conscious reggae vibe; he didn’t start getting real hype until 12:08am and at that time you saw one of his crew members whisper to him and by the look on Sizzla’s face you knew it was not a good message.  Then Sizzla continued with his song set thrilling his fans with hits like 'Standing Firm', 'Show us the way', 'Got it right there', 'Solid as a rock' and 'Haffi get the nookie (but mi nah rape)’ and then someone signaled to Sizzla from side stage and Sizzla passed the remark “yo have some respect don’t you see I’m working” and then approximately 30 seconds later Sizzla’s MIC went dead in the middle of a song.  Then Sizzla put down the MIC and walked off stage very upset.  Sizzla’s fans could see that it was not about the money, it was about having a good time working for his fans and giving them the full performance they deserved.  

All in all ICM Fest was a cultural blend that was successful and if the timing problem had not reared its ugly head again the night would have been perfect.  Nuff respect to the promoters and artists who worked to put the festival together, they delighted both the Reggae and Soca fans.