Bunji & Fay Ann: Advocates For True Fete Culture
I wanted to wait until Hard Fete took place to write this piece. The new addition to the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival Fete Calendar, Hard Fete is a party staged by Bunji Garlin and Fay Ann Lyons, the powerhouse soca couple.
Hard Fete, derived from the name of Garlin’s 2023 Road March winner, brought to life exactly what the lyrics of that song spoke of.
I not going no small fete, let me extend my apology
Only big fete with big flag
going overhead like canopy
Rag in meh back pocket with a white vest
Sneakers and wallabees
Knife tips and tight pants
I never really rate none of these
From the videos online, the fete, held at the compact Sound Forge space off Mucurapo Road, indeed had big flags, people dressed in shorts and sneakers, no sections and level vibes.
Take it from those who were actually there:
“Bunji and Fay Ann, and every performer who came before them launched onto the Hard Fete stage at Sound Forge as if given one instruction: “Mash the X and stop for nothing.” There was no lull, no lapses in energy, and no way you didn’t hit at least half of your daily step goal before 2 a.m,” wrote Kejan Haynes in the Trinidad Guadian.
“The crowd embraced every directive. From the rush to secure tickets to the unrestrained energy of jumping and waving, Hard Fete was everything they envisioned—a revival of an authentic carnival experience, wrote Nneka Parsanlal of Loop News.
“Can we talk about Hard Fete? I stood in that fete with raised pores and tear-filled eyes, as a flood of nostalgia sucked me in like a vacuum back to a time without cellphones, a time when walking home after the fete was your only option as you marched along for miles with a host of other strangers trailing or leading the way. A time when team Flags dominated the sky, blocking your view of the stage and rag time was a rite of passage. A time when “point you finger so” instructions were followed with anticipation by a throng of eager feters that all ran to the left in unison and then to the right and then back to the center. A time when short pants, sneakers and tights were the comfort wear for such an event, and fellas took their shirts off to fete harder. Hard Fete was WASA, Fire, Flour, License, and Brass all in one, a memory made alive and an experience reminiscent of times when Fete was Fete. Hard Fete was “Carry it” encapsulated. The GrassRoots Lives!!! Congratulations to Bunji Garlin and Fay Ann Lyons well done!! ” said Facebook user Cindy Thomas.
Now, this is not a review of the fete since I was only there in spirit since I reside, for now, in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
This is an acknowledgment and a call for those who haven’t yet recognised that Bunji and Fay have been singlehandedly keeping the feting culture that our generation grew up experiencing. I spent my formative teenage years attending Calypso Fiesta with my family before Soca Monarch was a thing. As a San Fernandian, Calypso Fiesta was a rite of passage and my family did not miss it.
In those days, the songs that moved the fetes were part of the competition. I was, very fortunately, present to jump with the masses when Superblue destroyed Skinner Park with “Get Something and Wave’, “Bacchanal”, “Lara’ and his other hits. I was there when Johnny King ensured no one left dry for his song “Wet Meh Down”. Even the sno-cone vendor near to us emptied the ice in his cart in his exuberance. He probably only sold warm syrup after that. Those videos going viral from those days, I was there, a speck in the dust jumping wildly with the rest of the crowd. To this day, my brother, Lance, is still looking for the basket his wife took to the park one year and was swept away in the madness. Those fancy tables and bar set-ups that define Fiesta today woulda never survive.
Soca Monarch, WASA Fete, Brass Festival, Fire Fete, Licensing., Flour Mills and all the sundry fetes Bunji mentions in his songs were all part of my fete upbringing. The first time I attended a WASA fete, I was a UWI Freshman. My friend Maureena advised me upon entry to the fete to “just keep jumping’ To ignore those words was a surefire way to become fete roadkill and I was not going to suffer that fate.
In those days, groovy soca was not a thing. It was just pure power soca, music designed to make you move, jump, and sweat. Bands like Sound Revolution, Charlie’s Roots, Chandileer, Altantik, with their dynamic frontline singers kept the adrenaline pumping and the flag posses engaged.
This is the fete environment Bunji and Fay Ann were birthed in. Bunji, graduating from freestyle battles on Arima’s streets to become a crossover beacon for the dancehall youth of his era with his ragga soca classics “Ride dem Riddim’, ‘In de Ghetto’, ‘Licks’ and more.
Fay Ann, the daughter of the legendary Superblue, emerging from the streets of Siparia and Point Fortin, moving crowds as part of Naya George’s band Invazion with the Road March winner ‘Trinidad.’
They were among a new generation of artists to emerge in the late 90s into the early noughts but the fete scene they were birthed in changed as the new millennium took shape. Violence in public fetes, new events, the rise of the all-inclusive fetes, the birth of Triniscene, a popular fete photography website, the growth of social media and the dawn of the smartphone forever changed the way we partied. Uptown became the new designation for fetes whose entry was now ruled by committee, and the dress code followed suit. Sneakers, shorts, and wifebeaters gave way to dresses, heels, clutches, and cute shirts. Groovy soca, with its slower bpm, exploded in popularity, its legitimacy sealed with its own category in the International Soca Monarch competition.
As the public fetes died one by one, Soca Monarch remained the last bastion for power soca and flags, and wildness. By 2016, that too was on life support and the power songs seemed relegated to only road march relevance.
Bunji and Fay never stopped trying to keep the masses moving. Fay, especially, has kept a steady hand on her reputation as the ‘Queen of Movement’ with songs like ‘Make a Stage’, ‘Heavy T Bumper’, ‘Block the Road’ and more recently ‘Stage is Yuh Name’ and ‘Dive’. This year, her ‘Road Meeting’ and ‘Bend’ was a continuation of her brand.
For his part, her hubby, the Viking, has been on a mission to bring back the fete culture of old. He has been a steady advocate for the resurgence of the flag crew, including them in his videos and performances and has used his music to tell the story of how we grew up feting.
“Hard Fete” is a prime example as is his 2025 Road March contender ‘Carry It”.
Downtown fete was a safe space
30,000 people of different background
Converge on PSA grounds
Shaking like a earthquake
But everyone was fine
It was when hot gyal wine
We used to see the downtown massive and the uptown massive
With no fences to separate
And it was like of rite passage
When yuh clothes get damage
‘Cause yuh start feting by the gate
I predict that due to the success of Hard Fete, there will be attempts by promoters to replicate this model. Despite the commercial success of the segmented, all-inclusive, ticket by committee party model, there is a deep yearning by partygoers today to experience partying the way their parents did back in the day. Is the pendulum about to swing in the next direction?
EDITOR’S NOTE:
This article was written by Laura Dowrich, who is a cultural journalist who specializes in Caribbean music and history.
