Annual Caribbean Festival

The sound of blaring horns and dancehall music radiated through the city while people waving flags of their different Caribbean countries danced in the middle of the street. The Annual Los Angeles Caribbean Festival was truly a spectacle, even for a place as unique as Hollywood Boulevard. On a typical Saturday morning in the summer, the streets of Hollywood were flooded with costumed dancers accompanied by flashy parade floats and thousands of onlookers cheering on and dancing. The Annual Los Angeles Caribbean Festival also known as the Hollywood Carnival was a celebration of Caribbean culture, “expressing the colors of culture and freedom of the Caribbean as one people”, states the event’s website, “This is a celebration of our cultures and traditions, featuring colorful costumes, dances, food, arts & crafts, and music from around the West Indies”(site).

Collectively, the Hollywood Carnival exemplifies national pride as well as Caribbean regionalism through song, dance, and overall celebration.

The Hollywood Carnival begins with a “Parade of Bands” followed by a concert series in a venue called the Carnival Culture Village.

The parade began on Normandie Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard, continued for about three miles, and concluded at the “Carnival Culture Village” on Hollywood and Highland. Parade floats were often 18-wheeler trucks that haul large stages with massive sound systems where either DJs or artists performed sometimes accompanied by featured dancers. These floats were often decorated with nation colors and flags for their respective countries, and DJs on the floats encouraged audience members to “show your colors” while driving through the boulevard.

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Dancers in the parade wore colorful two-piece sets adorned with jewels, feathers, and sequins. These flashy dancers generally trailed the floats on foot, often inviting onlookers to join and dance to the styles of “wine” or “punta” in the middle of the street. Caribbean culture is very liberated when it comes to the body and sex, what an outsider may view as provocative and taboo, was quite customary to islanders.

As the parade concluded, onlookers, dancers, and performers alike flocked to the Carnival Culture Village venue in preparation for the main event, the concerts. The Carnival Culture Village, also the performance area for the popular late-night show Jimmy Kimmel Live!, was outdoor and consisted of a raised stage with a sound system overhead. Different Caribbean genres and cultures took the stage: calypso, soca, reggae, reggaeton, dancehall, and punta performers most notably Konshens, Machel Montano, Kes, and the Band, and Tanya Carter highlight the festival’s lineup.

The first major artists to take the stage were Kes and the Band, a popular calypso group from Trinidad and Tobago. The audience reacted in an uproar of excitement when they heard the harmonious beginning of “Hello” by Kes. As the song proceeded, the smooth calypso rhythms coupled with the steelpan seemed to have relaxed the audience, creating a sense of peace and intimacy amongst the crowd of over 1000. The steelpan is a symbol of pride in Caribbean culture due to the history of its origin. Trinidadian steelpan arranger, Michelle Huggins-Watts details the importance of the steelpan, “It came from the bowels of our impoverished lower classes and we are extremely proud of that,” Huggins-Watts then goes on to explain how “music builds community and acts as a form of communication. Looking back centuries ago, slaves had been stripped of their cultural identity, their names, their music, so we created new music using things we found lying around.” Brass instruments, steelpans, and highly rhythmic and melodic vocals characterize calypso music. Calypso can be seen as the forefather of Caribbean music, and its lineage can be traced back to kaiso music of West Africa which was brought to the islands of Trinidad and Tobago in the early to the middle 19th century. It formed as a mode of political expression and eventually became the voice of the people. Calypso has laid the groundwork for many other Caribbean genres of music.

A lesser-known Belizean singer named Tanya Carter led the following act. Carter sang her pop Caribbean tunes, but the most notable part of her performance was a cover of Kevin Lyttle’s song “Turn Me On.” This soca song provided another slower, rhythmic feel among the audience members, causing them to embrace one another. Soca music, a derivative of calypso, also originated in Trinidad and Tobago. Gaining popularity in the 1970s, soca was highly influenced by Black funk and soul music, hence the name “Soul of Calypso”. Typical instruments of soca music include bass guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals, drums, synthesizers, and brass instruments.

Later on, a Jamaican singer by the name of Winston McFoster took the stage performing reggae tunes in the style of the late great Bob Marley. McFoster truly captured the essence of Jamaican nationalism with his exquisite suit. McFoster’s getup consisted of shiny black pants and a green blazer complemented by gold lapels, with the addition of a giant Jamaican flag embroidered across the back. The audience greatly supported Winston McFoster as he covered the legendary reggae classics of “Could You Be Loved” and “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley. Reggae is the popular music of Jamaica, its aesthetic is achieved by fusing Trinidadian calypso with Jamaican folk music called mento, and Black rhythm and blues from America. Most notable by its upbeat rhythms, which are staccato chords played by either a guitar and/or piano on the upbeats of the measure, reggae is a worldwide phenomenon often creating subgenres by fusing with different local instruments.

Another well-known artist that performed was Trinidad-born “King of Punta”, Machel Montano. He performed his recent hit single, “One Wine” featuring American EDM group, Major Lazer. “One Wine” incorporates influences from both dancehall and soca music into its energetic punta rhythm. Punta music, a parallel of calypso, originated in late 18th century Belize with the arrival of the Garifuna people. Punta is most notable for its Garifuna drums, shekere, turtle shell, conch, and more recently, electric guitar, bass, and synthesizer. Montano’s “One Wine” in particular includes strong electronic and synthesizer sounds due in part to the Major Lazer feature, which illustrates an example of commodification and American influence on Caribbean music.

When reggaeton performers such as Wisin Y Yandel appeared on stage, Latino members of the audience were especially thrilled. Popular songs like “Pam Pam” utilized upbeat, dembow rhythms that produce party favorites. Reggaeton music is another genre derived from reggae which came about from reggae en Espanol combined with dancehall rhythms and American hip hop. The reggaeton music style came from Puerto Rico in the late 1990s when DJ Playero and DJ Nelson fused hip hop and Latin American music, creating a “riddim” and ultimately the first reggaeton track. Characterized by rapping, and singing by the dembow riddim, reggaeton has become one of the most popular music genres in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean.

Finally, the headliner of the Hollywood Carnival, Konshens entered the stage. The Jamaican dancehall star was met with an ecstatic response from the audience before he even said a word. He performed his infamous single “Bruk Off Yuh Back” with many dancers on stage dancing wine and punta. The entire audience, from young children to the older viewers, all the Caribbean people as well as the outsiders were dancing in the intimate styles of wine and punta. Dancehall was initially an offshoot of reggae music. Its similarities with the notable Jamaican pop music include the “one drop” reggae beat, as well as the same 3-3-2 durational pattern (tresillo rhythm). In the mid-1980s, dancehall music came into its own, forming a distinct genre featuring more prevalent digital instrumentations and much faster rhythms. Recently, Jamaican dancehall music has been making its way to Western mainstream music as more dancehall artists have been collaborating with established Western artists and producers such as Popcaan being featured in Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late album or the song “Give It All To Me” by Mavado featuring Nicki Minaj.

Calypso, soca, reggae, reggaeton, dancehall, and punta draw many similarities from each other because they are derivatives of one another. Altogether, these musical genres are from the sound of the Caribbean. The Hollywood Carnival allowed the audience to engage with performers, creating a relationship between them and the music as well as the culture. During performances, artists and DJs often yelled “wave your flag” and other calls and responses like, “Where are my people from Puerto Rico?”. These musical interactions emphasized the value of Caribbean pride and nationalism. Just by listening to the audience and performers, one can detect the diversity of dialects and languages including English, Patois, Belizean Kriol, Trinidadian Creole, Spanish, and others. Although they may speak differently, at the Hollywood Carnival every audience member and performer shared the same Caribbean culture through music and dance. Similar to The Black Atlantic, a biography by Paul Gilroy, the Hollywood Carnival displayed a culture that is not specifically African American, Jamaican, or Bahamian but a Caribbean culture of its own that transcends ethnicity, nationality, and background.