Comedy and soca . . . Holetown Festival’s Feva delights

A head count would have easily confirmed that there were more tourists than Bajans gathered at Surfside Restaurant for The Holetown Festival’s Feva concert.

A solid entertainment package was enjoyed by a large crowd on Thursday night behind the police station car park in Holetown, St James. With the sand beneath their feet and the branches from trees above their heads, patrons danced the night away and had a blast even when the rain threatened to end a good thing.

MC Jamar The Star did a great job keeping the audience engaged and making the tourists feel at home among the Bajans. Six lucky people, made up of mainly visitors, got birthday gifts from the festival committee.

There were exciting and energetic performances by Len Sentidi Stilt Walkers, Wacky Wayne on the unicycle and Mother Sally. The daring Stilt Walker showed off his skills as he used the area in front of the stage for his presentation. But his performance was confined to one area. Wacky Wayne delighted the audience with his control of a unicycle and child’s tricycle as he moved through the crowd. He was going to the beat of the soca song Famalay.

Mother Sally had a show of her own. The Bajan cultural icon was gyrating to the sounds of Lil Rick’s 2018 Party Monarch hit and winner of the same name Mother Sally. When she was done with the stage, she made her way through the crowd and danced on random males in the audience. Mother Sally then took four male tourists on stage and gave them group and individual dance lessons with a Bajan flare. The crowd enjoyed every minute of it.

Barbados’ longest existing comedy group, MADD Entertainment, did what they do best – made people laugh. Featuring Kevin Hinds and Eric Lewis as the front men, they performed a skit with a typical Bajan couple.

“Fed up” with Sylvan, Gladys declared she was moving out of the house. She accused him of being a drunk and useless and claimed in colourful Bajan dialect that he won’t change his ways. Sylvan in turn said that Gladys was “ungrateful”. He then pointed out how he “contributes” to the household. He said he bought the broom and jucking board she uses to clean with.

After a confrontation about money, Sylvan gave Gladys his wallet which only had $2 in it. A taxi is outside and Gladys is prepared to leave when Sylvan’s good friend and mate Rudifus comes calling. As Gladys left the house, but not the property, she overheard Rudifus telling Sylvan he had the winning lotto numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

Gladys returned to the house and attempted to make amends, but Sylvan wouldn’t have it. Both he and Rudifus put her out as they celebrated his new fortune. After all the jubilation and plans for spending the whopping $10 million dollars, Sylvan realised that the winning ticket was in the wallet Gladys left with.

The trio left the crowd in stitches.

Former Sweet Soca King Biggie Irie rocked the crowd as he was invited patrons to stand at the front of the stage and dance. The majority obliged. He sang Nah Going Home, Pankatang and Magic.

A downpour of rain accompanied Stiffy as he brought bashment soca to the stage. The former two-time Bashment Soca King performed Garden, Tip and Ben Ova, Mavis and Lies.

Timeless Band closed the night with a 30 minute set of some back in time favourites. (IMC)