Soca lovers who attended SOCA+ Festival—Jamaica’s first 12-hour soca, water and breakfast party—were left re-energised, revitalised and rejuvenated four months ahead of the start of another local soca season.

The first ever sold-out event of its kind, which was implemented by the I Love Soca Jamaica team in partnership with presenting partner, Campari, was hosted between 10:00 pm and 10:00 am on the grounds of Sabina Park between Saturday and Sunday (September 30 – October 1) with 18 DJs from the Caribbean nations Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, Bahamas and Panama mixing soca, dancehall, souls, oldies and afrobeats hits after hits around the turntables.

Their energy was equally matched with sensational performances by Trindadian ‘Queen of Soca’ Destra Garcia; Vincentian heavyweight Skinny Fabulous and Jamaica’s dancehall sensation and Campari’s brand ambassador, Aidonia.

The “fresh drop” artiste was joined on stage for a special surprise performance from none other than the new era dancing sensation himself Ding Dong and his Ravers Clavers squad that brought even more vibes to the stadium and had the entire audience dancing.

Mark Telfer, brand manager at Campari, recalled the SOCA+ Festival as a historic moment in entertainment for the country with the largest creative stage ever in Jamaica.

“The SOCA+ Festival was an absolute experience not to be missed. Patrons, both locally and internationally, came out in thousands to witness the 12-hour long festival and to rave like they never did before. The crowd was well prepared for the long, exciting night ahead as they rolled in with coolers, chairs, blankets and tents to experience the full effect of the festival,” Telfer said.

“We also had West Africa represented by Blaq Pages coming all the way from Ghana. This line up had the crowd sweating, jumping, singing and dancing as they switched between afrobeats, soca and dancehall seamlessly,” he said.

With this new experience for Jamaica, which brought the biggest creative stage, cooler allowance, inclusive Campari drinks all night until 6:00 am, major performances from both local and international artistes, cool down segment with the water trucks and breakfast following for all patrons, this Campari sponsored event was undoubtedly one for the record books.

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