The word comes from the French saying “jour ouvert” or morning open and in the Caribbean it is considered the largest street party for any carnival celebration. But in St. Maarten it has the unique twist as it centres on “the Great Salt Pond.” Traditionally the St. Maarten Carnival Development Foundation hosts specific soca and calypso related events on stage at Carnival Village with the intention of “warming up” revellers for the round the pond jam. What is also true for this time of year is that revellers generally start lining the streets by the hundreds around 3:00am, some of whom would have just awoken from their sleep in preparation for the event.
On Wednesday, April 28, at 4:00 am, King Melody, winner of the 2008 Heineken Green Synergy competition, and local artist and radio personality Versatile will perform their new single “Jouvert Morning.” The early morning show will be in the Laser101 parking lot.
Inspiration for this year’s Carnival anthem comes from the sheer need to celebrate the festive Carnival season. Ramon Wilson, a great supporter of the youths and owner of Country Sounds Studio, gave the two young artists the opportunity to experiment musically in his studio, which helped them bring the song to life.
4m Band winners of the Band-o-rama St.Maarten Carnival 2010 will be on the road. 4M band members earned an early lead in the race to their second Band-of-the-Year title. The band announced last week that it hoped to claim the title en route to their fifth anniversary next year. Also on the road will be the Youth Waves, Entyce Band and direct from Trinidad the hottest soca diva Fayann Lyons jamming with Bunji Garlin.
Excerpts taken from articles on www.morebacchanal.com and www.thedailyherald.com
For more information visit our website www.visitstmaarten.com
