News: Problems galore at Soca for Summer

"A host of problems plagued the Soca for Summer concert, despite organisers’ best efforts on Saturday night.

From technical difficulties, to time, scuffles and limited police presence, the concert that featured some of the country’s best talent seemed blighted in its first fledging year, and ended around 5 am.

This effort of Terrin “TC” Callender, Trini Bashment and other organisers had the potential to be a great show, but came in a week that featured both a bombing in Port-of-Spain and Hurricane Emily.

This may have negatively affected some performers’ ability and willingness to attend the show, but did not seem to do much damage to ticket sales, judging by the turnout.

In weeks leading up to the show, it was rumoured that Wyclef Jean would fly in for the soca bash, but that was not the case. There was also said to be an MTV camera crew present.

Twice during the show, the police had to be called over the microphone to the VIP Bar and the VIP entrance to quell the rising tide of anger in the crowd, and stormers.

Allegations of counterfeit tickets left some patrons standing outside, and ubiquitous scalpers smiling.

Some who claimed to have valid tickets, which ranged from $120 upwards, did not get in.

This led to the crowd outside trying to rush the VIP gate.

The police did not seem to get there fast enough, and were not many in number, but luckily major violence was avoided.

Some artistes scheduled to perform did not get their time on-stage.

Road March champion Shurwayne Winchester, who was said to have flown in from New York just for this show, performed Dead or Alive to a crowd that was surprisingly still alive.

Winchester kept having to look over his shoulder like a fugitive while on-stage, as he kept getting cues to wrap up his set.

Bunji Garlin and the Asylum band were the longest performers, as their set featured several hits and quite a few guest artistes.

In false military dress, Garlin had the crowd frenzied with a great performance. He, along with other artistes, also lambasted singer I-Wayne for allegedly saying that soca was “devil music.”

The technical difficulties were at their worst for Garlin and his crew, however, as the sound system was mercurial and the Advance Dynamics boom camera kept buzzing dangerously close to performers’ heads.

Garlin asked the operator to be careful and managed to dodge it, but Scarface was not so fortunate. He got the “boom” straight to the head, but kept performing nonetheless, and did not seem injured.

Faye Ann Lyons, in a skin-tight black outfit and heels, even said to operators: “I don’t want to fall off the stage.”

It was evident that stage managers lost track of time, and as a result of this most of the acts after Garlin, which included KMC, Machel Montano and Winchester, were all hurried. "

--Knockz