Soca Diva Alison Hinds was back on the Cavalcade stage after a long break.

by Wendy Burke

FIFTEEN HUNDRED STRONG, new talent, culture in all forms, and true community support were all there at the first Banks/Cable & Wireless Cavalcade.

The entertainment actually began at 7 p.m. with music by DJ Twister which drew residents of the nearby residential areas from their homes, and then it was time for Tuk Band in the Community, with the Pompasetters travelling a short distance into the West Terrace area to beat out the sweet calypso rhythms on their kettle drums, bass drums and triangle while keeping the melody with the pennywhistle.

Then the attention turned to the stage promptly at 8 p.m. promptly with emcee Mac Fingall keeping the crowd lively.

Casablanca Steel Orchestra only boasted five members but they put down some wonderful renditions and paid tribute to local Grammy Award winner Rihanna with her tune Unfaithful.

They went smoothly into reggae with Bob Marley's Jammin' and into Peter Ram's Woman By My Side, Mr Dale's Soka Junkie and a number of other
popular tunes from 2007, as well as past hits like Gabby's Boots.Then it was time to switch the focus from music
to dance, with Praise Academy of Dance-New Era, winners of last year's Community Independance competition, performing a street-dance skit to portray good overcoming evil, and showing that even suicidal youth can rise and "catch afire with the Holy Spirit".

Whether the audience got the message was not clear, since some were cheering at the violent parts, but in all it was a riveting performance for which the group received thunderous applause.

The community calypso competition took a while to get underway as the audience seemed to have stage fright, but the eventual brave ones gave the crowd something to laugh about.

Blast from the past

Local band Jabae, with brothers Bruce and Barry Chandler, did a number of popular Trinidadian numbers along with Barry's former Party Monarch -winning tune Flames.

Then the calypso opera man, Adrian Clarke, stepped on to give a good performance.

PJ gave a blast from the past with Rice Gone Up, showing the song still had relevance nearly two decades after its release.

The Cavalcade stage truly heated up when the usual karaoke man Gabriel showed his calypso skills.

Then the calypso balladeer Troy Special stepped onstage to do Bad Man, but before he could finish the song some "badness" broke out in a small skirmish, which police quickly quelled. Troy brought sanity back to the crowd by singing Let There Be Peace On Earth which was most appropriate.

He continued with Sickey Part Two, which tells people that rather than get angry and fight they should just scream.

The rest of the lineup kept the show tight with Khiomal doing his Bashment Bacchanal, Kidsite rendering his new Fashion Police and Pigtail, which was first heard at the Rihanna concert.

Then the fully hyped massive crowd got a chance to see Alison Hinds do the Faluma with Mac, her new medium tempo tune about Soca In Me Body,
and Togetherness.

Hypa Dog Li'l Rick started with some dub renditions but then moved to Girls Gone Wild
and Can't Wait, with Spin Pooch Inc. adding
the waistline shots.

When the show ended at the stroke of midnight most of the exited patrons were filled with festival fever.