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With the Caribana festivities slowly coming to a trickle, it was the night of one of the most talked about fetes... Fire Fete 4 "The Big Ticket"! Now if you were gaping and undecided till the 11th hour well hard luck cause this fete was sold out and you would only be faced with scalper tickets costing at least $65 CDN and up! Being no stranger to the Fire Fete series, TJJ was ready, set, go and on the inside at 10pm.

As expected the place was ram! We mean to the point where it was impossible to get from one side of the room to the other... madness! Big props to the DJ line up. You had Jugglers, Mad Mad Johann (Sel Construction) and Umba (Matsimelia) representin' direct from Trini, along with Juice Crew International, Gemstone International, Renegade Squad, BASS and Jump Up Kings that mashed up on the turntables priming the crowd for the bacchanal to come and of course the men with the steel S.K.F & E Man.

Things kicked off with Iwer George doing what the big man in de business does best, and well yes when he sang "Water", it was as if the crowd was having ah seizure! People jumped and water was everywhere, all dem pretty gal was running for cover!! :-) Up next was the one and only Maximus Dan who performed his now world renowned Soca Warrior chunes "Fighter" and "Warrior Goal" ... "Say Goal... One Goal, Say Goal... Two Goal ... Say Goal, Goal... Goal Goal..." Seeing that the whole Caribbean was still hyped from World Cup 2006 in was fantastic to see flags from all over in waving in unison and the crowd chanting word for word during each song. With a small intermission between artists, Jugglers soundcrew and Umba from Matsimela switched up beats and buss some sweet sweet sweet (did we say SWEET!) reggae tunes. Yes we know it's Caribana but oh lawd you couldn't resist the vibe.

The Sugar Cake Girls came on briefly singing some Indian tunes (we think), and well sorry to say they did not last long on stage because the crowd instantaneously became restless. The crowd wanted Machel and with out further adieu, the moment arrived.

Get, get, get, get... whooaaa, whooaaaa and de crowd goes into a frenzy when 'guess who' runs onto de stage. Well boi de girls went off their rockers, who wanna touch, feel, grab, jus to make sure dat yes it was the man himself, Mr. Machel Montano. Machel mashed de stage up performing such songs as "Scandalous (Delirious)" and bringing in de Spanish vibe with "La Vida Del Carnival". Now although Mr. Vegas never made it, his presence was still felt with the mastermind of Shel Shock when the band performed "Dance With You". All de independent ladies had to represent when "Roll It Remix" was performed. Who went on top of man shoulder or showed their ASSETS when asked by Machel?? We won't even go there!! ;-)

The talented Patrice Roberts blessed the stage to buss de 2006 Road March chune "Band Of D Year", and rags, powder, flags, everything went in de air!! Zan follows to perform his 2k6 hit with Machel "Heart of A Man" and "... have u ever been in love?" Come on, please don't act like allyuh didn't hug up someone in de back by de bar while Zan and Patrice were singing "Always Be"!! Hehehe. Ok when we tell you, de performance from Mr. Scandalous and de band was amazing. Next, Benjai joined the action singing de local reggae of Trinidad... "I've got something 4 you" and all de rasta and reggae lovers jus kept singing along in a chant, "gimme gimme ganjaaaa", hmmmmm. Also, it was nice to see everyone in unity, swaying side to side when Benjai and Machel performed "Amnesty" to get de message across to stop de violence. Machel Montano and de Xtatik Family was electrifying performing hit after hit, and we cannot forget how dey bring rap legend Doug E Fresh who flatten de place with his beat boxing and mic skills rippin' up any reggae or soca chune dat can come to the human mind.

It was around minutes to 4am and then some when TJJ went in search for their beloved corn soup and headed up the road to drop some foreigners to the airport! Much thanks to CVR and Triple Crown Entertainment. We will see everyone at the RAM Tour on Sept 9th back at the Kool Haus... Rupee, Alison Hinds and Machel all on the same stage, it will be bananas!!

~ Trini Red Woman ~