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GOOOOD MORNING VINCY!!

From as early as 12am, masqueraders meet at their respective mas camp to get their J’Ouvert pre-game on. Drinking, dancing and dirty each other with every color paint in sight before hitting the streets of Kingstown at about 6am!

TJJ linked up with RJR J’Ouvert band at Solidarity Car Park around 5:30am ... yes, still injured from Slippery When Wet earlier, we were moving on some serious Caribbean time. RJR’s theme for 2011 - “Facebook”.  Revelers were not only were covered in blue paint like a scene out of Braveheart, they were dancing all around the music truck to the Platinum Sounds with 2Kool Chris, wining up a storm and drinking tons of Hairoun beer.

As the first beam of sun kissed the pavement, so did the feet of the eager J’ouvert masqueraders ready to take off and hit the road palancing! Painted all up in whatever color happened to be sprayed onto them, they were filthy, dirty and loving it!!

Once the band left the Car Park, it was a whole different game. More and more people came out into town and filled the roads in numbers! Before long we were forced to board the music truck, and from the view on board it became obvious that the roads were starting to cram with revelers and stormers galore. From the top of the truck, all we could see was a sea of bobbing heads and a flood of colored tees ... not an ounce of pavement anywhere in sight.

People were jammin’, singin’ and dancin’ to the 2011 Vincy Soca tunes. And aside from no pavement, there was also no behavior!  Case in point, there were two boys who jumped onto a shrub and started raving, they would then fall off and get back on to do it all over again. This shrub became a center of attention when a man actually started eating the bush and thought it was funny so he continued to walk around with leaves in his mouth.

When it comes to partying for Vincentians, apparently Carnival is the biggest event and everyone saves up all their energy (and madness), drink tons of Sunset (which is their local rum, might I mention its about 85% alcohol) and get on bad. The locals even take it a step further and design creative costumes for the events pertaining to all the new hit songs like a woman who dressed up as Little Bo Peep carrying a sign saying, “Bo Peep lookin fo de ‘Sheep’”.

Around 7:30am, we made our way to the Bank Yard (the apparent after party meeting spot for a select crowd for the carnival season), where we continued the fetin’ and had a lil’ extra fun of our own with our hidden bottle of blue paint! Who’s looking for a hand print?

From the looks of things, J’ouvert carried on until 12 noon when masqueraders decided to finally go home, shower and get ready for the Monday Street Party where more fun was soon to come!

-Coop aka Fireman Cooper
(Daddy Juice contributed to this review)

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>> View St. Vincent J'Ouvert 2011 Gallery
>> View St. Vincent & The Grenadines Carnival 2011 Coverage