About 2,000 people in the mood to "jump up and sway" for Carnival Y2K turned out Saturday night for the kickoff, a near seven-hour jam at Lionel Roberts Stadium featuring the legendary soca band Byron Lee and the Dragonaires, Edgardo Cintro and his Latin orchestra, and Imaginations Brass.
Imagi opened the show with two hours of music that ranged from reggae to soca, merengue and a little salsa. The thumping sounds from three-tier speaker walls set up on either side of the 80-foot-wide stage could be heard for miles away from the stadium in Hospital Ground.
Shortly after 10 p.m., Cintron and his Tiempo orchestra took the stage to dazzle the crowd with an infectious Latin rhythm. The band's roots are in Puerto Rico, but most of its members hail from the Philadelphia area. Horns, drums and keyboards with a dash of percussion made for a Latin-flavorful night.
The crowd was in a party mood by the time Byron Lee and the Dragonaires took the stage around midnight. Dressed in bright red outfits, the band was a crowd pleaser from its first selection, "Kitty Cat," to the last lap three hours later.
The performance was peppered with impromptu dance competitions as lead vocalist Oscar B. energized the crowd with antics that included the introduction of a soca dance "wine artist" from Barbados. Lee himself spent the night working the band's mixing console regulating the sound, but he did step aside for a few moments to make a brief appearance on stage as the band played its all-time favorite hit, "Tiney Winey."
Saturday's show was the first official event of Carnival 2000, which will be working its way to an unusually late finale on May 6. The next event is the Prince and Princess Talent and Selection Show set for 5 p.m. Sunday, April 16, also in the stadium.
For a complete list of Carnival events and ticket information, click on Community/Other stuff
