20 000 strong

Paint galore: these two men had no problem being covered in paint. (Rawle Culbard)

By Marlon Madden | Sun, August 05, 2012 - 12:08 AM

More than 20 000 revellers and thousands more spectators let loose in what was the biggest ever Roberts Manufacturing Foreday Morning Jump-Up in the wee hours of yesterday morning.

This year saw 38 bands taking part, compared to the 23 last year. They started their journey from three locations – the BTI car park, the Helipad and the Barbados Investment & Development Corporation (BIDC) – converging on the Spring Garden Highway.

At approximately 1:15 a.m. the first band left the Helipad, making its way along the route under the watchful eyes of thousands of festive spectators, police officers and members of the Barbados Defence Force (BDF). Each band started its journey after hyping up the revellers with a few of this year’s popular Crop Over songs, including Dutty Android’s Conduckta and Mikey’s winning hit We Loose. There was also a mixture of older lyrics, as well as soca out of Trinidad and dancehall rhythms out of Jamaica.

The bands leaving the Helipad took some time to be organized, as scores of revellers searched anxiously for the group they had registered with. The second band left almost half-hour after the first.

Please read the full story in today’s SUNDAY SUN, or in the eNATION edition.