Socca Reggae Festival 2008

The Caribbean Community in Winnipeg Manitoba showed its red, green, gold and black colours recently celebrating its third annual Socca Reggae Festival held at the Old Market Square in the heart of t the Exchange District on the Weekend of July 11 - 13, 2008.

The Exchange District is like the twin to Chicago. Both cities share a similar type of architecture, public art on buildings and intricate street contours. Many Hollywood films such as Shall we Dance were filmed in this area for cost effectiveness without losing the feel of Chicago.

Socca Reggae music filled the air this past weekend in spite of the rain that threatened it. There was a variety of entertainment ranging from socca, reggae, calypso and hip-hop and the limbo.

Local musicians were the main performers including Calypso King, Charlo, female calypso singer Paula Toussaint also known as Lady Gemini, Mellowman, the hip-hop star and Rockalypso band also known as the "go to" band. Rockalypso band provides back up to many singers in the city. These musicians had the crowd bopping and hopping to the rhythmic Caribbean beats. The only out of town act was the limbo performed by Lady Lolita who came all the way from the beautiful tropical island of Barbados to show the audience how to bend low under a stick. She was fabulous.

Some of the interesting sides at the Festival were an array of local businesses, selling their goods and promoting Caribbean centered products, including a food and beer garden serving up Jamaican patties, curried chicken and rice and Red Stripe beer and rum and coke. The food and the beer tents were the most popular watering hole in the place.

The Socca Reggae festival was established in 2006 to increase awareness of the musical traditions of the Caribbean and to share this beautiful music and culture with the larger Winnipeg multicultural community. The organizers said that they also hoped that by showcasing the music, the local media would be encouraged to give more air time to Caribbean music.

Socca music is a modern form of calypso which is a precursor to the present day hip-hop music, with an up-tempo beat. The genre of music originated in Trinidad and Tobago by the two dominant ethnic strands - East Indian and Afro groups - whose influence peppers the music. Caribbean singer Arrow popularized socca music with his 1983 hit single "Hot, Hot, Hot". Today socca music is definitively associated with Eastern Caribbean area.

The general public on the other hand is much more familiar with reggae music. This is the music of Bob Marley and the Wailers, one of Caribbean's most popular musicians. Of course Bob Marley is a Jamaican by birth but all the people in the Caribbean region bask in his legendary fame. Reggae music is rooted in African music, rhythm and blues and early rock and roll. Reggae music speaks about social issues of poverty, freedom, and politics as well as about the Rastafarian religious ideals.

According to Festival organizers, Reggae music's uniqueness is in its offbeat syncopation, upstroke guitar strums and chanting lyrics.

Although Reggae has gained in popularity since Bob Marley's death in 1981, in my view there has not been a musician in this genre, even Marley's sons, who has surpassed the King of Reggae music and his special brand of lyrics.

Winnipeggers love Reggae/Socca music because people of every race, class and nationality were there partying and having a good time.