Jan. 4, 2006 — A foam party was the highlight of the annual J'ouvert morning tramp Thursday as revelers jumped, pranced and waved their flags in the biggest street party of the Crucian Christmas Festival.
Thousands of participants, some in outrageous costumes, took to the streets to dance in wild abandon and celebrate the holiday season.
With the sun rising slowly over the island, crowds of people packed themselves behind their favorite band gyrating to the hypnotic pulse of calypso music. One band featured a machine that spewed a waterfall of foam, covering revelers from head to toe.
Teenagers, twenty-somethings and older folks all joined the fray. In J'ouvert, age was clearly not a factor. Mothers with babes in strollers, gaggles of high schoolers and older folks, whose tramping days refused to die, milled around, waiting for the bands to appear. It was still dark when the eager participants began gathering at Hannah's Rest corner, the traditional starting place for the official celebration. But before the bands would get under way, the sun was already peeping over the horizon.
Soon, bands like Stroka, UMB Soldiers, Xpress, High Voltage, and Digital cranked up the music and began moving down the road. Their destination, after winding through the streets of Frederiksted, was Dora Browne FestiVille village.
Their goal? To work the crowd into a wild frenzy.
Many revelers put as much work into their outfits for the day as they did the dancing. Although there was not as much outfit coordination as in past years. "Do your own thing" seemed to be the consensus of the day. You could see multi-colored wigs, women and men in pajamas, and lots of short shorts. There was a trio of trampers looking like innocent school girls in plaid uniforms until closer inspection revealed that one had a full beard and moustache.
A new band, UMB Soldiers, seemed to be a favorite of the younger set, which packed behind the band like sardines, dancing as closely as humanly possible.
The Xpress Band remains a favorite of young and old, as evidenced by the hundreds of people who surrounded the front, sides and rear of the truck carrying the band.
The band's singers enticed the throng – "If you have you bandana, wave it up high, I want to see it fly!" Revelers came prepared with different-colored bandanas, flags of many Caribbean nations, and, following the directions of the singers, sliced the sky with the multi-colored fabrics.
The High Voltage Band turned up the heat after several false starts required the help of a technician to keep the music pumping. But the band had a surprise in store for the revelers when it turned on a foam machine that launched new energy into the dancers. The crowd behind the band surged to fete under a waterfall of thick foam.
The band also had a following of agile dancers showing off their moves to the group's road-march entry, "Bumpers." As the band sang, "What do you want me to do with my bumper baby?" the women swiveled, revolved and rotated their bodies in time to the music.
Parents took the opportunity to teach their offspring to party like a Crucian. Fathers could be seen guiding the steps of their daughters, mothers spun round and round with their sons in tow.
Under the watchful eyes of their mothers, two toddlers, with their hands on their knees, showed the crowd their "wok up" style.
As the day's heat increased and the sounds of the music imprinted itself onto the brains of the revelers, the raucous dancing intensified, until several hours later, the street party was over – at least until next year.
This weekend is the wrap-up of the Crucian Festival, with the Children's parade Friday and the Adults Parade Saturday. Both events begin at 10 a.m.
To see the Festival in Photos click here.
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