Date: Sunday 23rd January 2011
Cost: $550 (last year ($500)
Guess who reach Moka before the sun set this year? ME!
We left home at around 5:30pm and got to the fete at 5:59pm! Mind you I spent about 20 minutes of that in traffic heading into Moka and parking. But more on that later.
So I reach inside the fete and pull out my camera that I had forgot
last year, only to realise that even though the batteries were charged the lens thingy was giving trouble.
This happens off and on ever since it fell while I was at
Fashion Week last year. Ah try all kinda ting, but my
lil camera didn't feel to work that night at all. *sigh*
Seeing that I got there all nice and early for a change and there was some time before the bands got on stage I figured I might as well try to eat something before 7pm as I'm on a lil pre-Carnival 'diet' of sorts. I had 2 mini crab stuffed dumplings and 2 servings of shrimp and oysters. Then I went back for 2 more crab stuffed dumplings cause they real lash!
That's about it.
That ah remember.
Oh. Sometime during Dil E Nadan's performance I had a corn soup.
One of the minor, but helpful changes that Moka made to their fete was in introduction of a big screen to the left of the stage where you could see the performances. This really helped later on when the fete got super packed.
I was glad that I had arrived early as the first band for the night (suprisingly) was Roy Cape All Stars.
Roy Cape All Stars feat. Blaxx, Rita Jones and Olatunji Yearwood feat. Andy Singh
Roy Cape warmed up the fete nicely with a decent repertoire until they introduced Andy Whatshisface who injected the fete with some chutney. Now I am not a hater of chutney music so don't get me wrong. I just dislike performers who don't realise that they need to move with the times. Andy was boring for me.
Rita was her usual aerobic tackily dressed in drag self, which has made me realise that sadly, neither she nor her stylist, read my blog. What's with the high kicks Rita? This ain't the gym.
I honestly do not remember Olatunji on stage, I dunno if someone spiked my fruit punch, but it seems he was there from the pictures I've seen.
Things became a bit confused when Blaxx started to introduce Denise Belfon and then stopped, soon after this Roy Cape wrapped up their set.
Roy Cape gets 3.5 wine to the side out of 5
Performing with Roy Cape was the groovy man himself
Benjai who really made the crowd move especially when he belted out his two big hits this year "
Trini" and
"Wine to the Side".Benjai gets 5 wine to the side out of 5
Dil-E-Nadan
If Trinity insists on having Dil-E-Nadan at this fete, they should at least have them perform first so I could take my time to get to the fete and miss them perform. They totally killed the vibe of the fete for me. It was during their performance I decide to go to the bathrooms and then took the time to sip some corn soup.
Note to Dil-E-Nadan: I gotta feeling that you all need to realise is Carnival 2011 and nobody wanna hear Black Eye Peas in no fete. Steups.
Dil-E-Nadan gets 1 wine to the side out of 5
Kes The Band
I was eagerly looking forward to seeing Kees perform and he didn't disappoint. Their set started off differently in that Kees came out and performed with his dancers (which he really does not need), then Nadia came out and performed her songs. They were also joined by Tallpree who was just 'aite' for me, he really just talks too much.
My main complaint with the band was not their performance so much, but their wardrobe. Kees, ah really not feeling the pyjama jeans/tights, 80s muscle top and funny jacket. Nadia, I loved the accessories but not all at the same time. Take off the belt or the necklace or something.
Kes The Band gets 4 wine to the side out of 5
Kes the Band was backup for guest artists TC, Shal Marshall and Screws and JW and Blaze.
Supa Jigga TC
The pants less tight this year, but I still doh understand why he always out of breath when he singing so. TC's performance was aite.
TC gets 3 wine to the side out of 5
Shal Marshall and Screws
I was kinda shocked that his performance was so decent to be honest. Maybe it's because I really like that motorbike song. Screws joined him to perform their tune
"All Out".Shal Marshall and Screws get 3.5 wine to the side out of 5
JW and Blaze
My favourite morning show hosts
JW and Blaze sang their Road March/
Soca Moarch hit "
Palance" as well as their newly released
"And Is Dat". They also sang their tune
"Together". People still love the
Palance a year later.
JW and Blaze get 3.5 wine to the side out of 5
FOOD
As I said before, I had two servings of crab stuffed dumplings, those were really fantastic and made hot on the spot. There was also the shrimp and oyster cocktails, accra, trini desserts of tambran balls, sugarcake, cornsoup. The lines for the Chinese food were always way too long though, so I never got the opportunity to sample the dimsum or wantons.
3.5 burps out of 5
BAR
This year the bar was done by Angostura and the service wasn't all that great. The bar staff seemed overwhelmed and the hubby said his drink (Johnny) ran out early.
2 ice cubes out of 5
BATHROOMS
Andy Loos and SWMCOL loos are now stabndard fare at Moka. Lovely as always.
4 out of 5 flushes.
EYE FOOD
This year the eye food for the women wasn't all that great, just okay. The hubby says the gape for the men was good.
3 cross eye out of 5
FASHION NOTE
I have to do a special note on the fashion for those of you ladies in foreign planning your fete wardrobe. Lots of mini dresses, lots of animal print and lots of gladiator sandals. The first two are fine, the latter, allyuh could leave that home, cause dat style has to be the worse thing since acid wash.
From early accounts we heard that this fete was sold out for the first time ever and the crowd at the fete reflected this. While this was excellent for the school, I really did not like standing up behind the Synergy mini stage to hear the performances. The place was packed tight, but this by no means stopped people from enjoying themselves.
Another problem I had was with the traffic to leave the venue which was even more than usual this year. They have a one way in-one way out situation that was not managed well. Moka need to work on that. People cannot be coming in when people trying to leave.
Despite that, this fete will remain on my fete calendar and is almost always my first fete for the season. See you on Saturday 8th January 2012!
