Hundreds came prepared to rave and party heartily for nine non-stop hours at the recent Music Factory: Pop, Dance And House Festival and they were not disappointed.
The blessing of a public holiday the following day meant that fatigue was of little consequence to patrons, who were treated to various electronic dance music genres as 20 DJs shared three different stages: The Main Stage, The Rave Stage and The Big House Stage.
For nine straight hours the BTI Carpark in Cavans Lane, The City, was literally set aglow as glow sticks, glow whistles, glow wristbands, glow shades, glow necklaces, glow cups and glowing personalities in approval of glowing dance moves took up residency.
Local DJs JusJay, Cyclone, Puffy, who had a live drums element to his set, and Scratch Master did not disappoint.
Puffy dished out a batch of exclusive Music Factory remixes of popular soca and Bajan dancehall tunes along with some dance tracks.
Scratch Master, during his set with Simply Smooth, played a wide range of popular and electronic dance songs. He even asked organizer Craig Corrie’s permission to break “every Music Factory rule” for three minutes before launching into an unexpected, but welcome, mini-set of timeless hip hop and rock anthems.
Another highlight of the night was DJ Krystal Roxx, who is signed to the world-renown Hed Kandi Label. She played a mixture of electro house, trance and pop songs – including some by Rihanna – and the audience could not get enough of her. It was an experience she described as shocking and unbelievable.
“Tonight was amazing; the Bajans were so amazing! They’ve actually got me overwhelmed about [coming] back, honestly, because everyone was just jumping; the whole room, all I could see was jumping,” she said.
D’Anhk, a British DJ who is trying to push the drum and bass scene on the island, was also very impressed with the event and believed that it could only get better.
“Over all, it’s been a brilliant festival. It was really good last year and . . . it got better because [there were] a lot more DJs with a wider range of music and the ravers had a good time; everyone was dancing. It’s definitely a good thing for Barbados and the Caribbean.”
Corrie said that he was very pleased with the way everything turned out as the festival lived up to his intention of making the DJ the star of the show.
