Midnight Groovers headlines Oktoberfest en Kweyol in St. Lucia

Midnight Groovers on stage at Oktoberfest en Kweyol in St. Lucia on Sunday
Midnight Groovers on stage at Oktoberfest en Kweyol in St. Lucia on Sunday

The ‘original kings of Cadence,’ the Midnight Groovers, was the main act of the “Oktoberfest en Kweyol” staged in St. Lucia on Sunday.

The event featured St. Lucian creole cuisine, a wide variety of world-class beers and live performances.

Entertainment was also provided by the reigning champion party band of St. Lucia, DYP, as well as traditional groups Mamai Lacaye, Secret Band and Avot Servis, the Harmonite Steel Band, Lighting dancers, Ricky T, MC Pringles and the 2013 Piton Soca Starz winner Soca Bandit, the “Pork sauce” man.

Six international beers were highlighted at the festival, including the Oktoberfest beer Paulaner Beer, Amstel Extra, Parbo Beer, Bulmers Pear Cider, Desperado Red and Affligem Blond.

But it was the Midnight Groovers who held center stage as the main act. Organizers of the event had high praise for the band who they say has “bridged the gap between Cadence and Calypso to present their own brand of music dubbed ‘Cadence-lypso.'”

“With a solid and cultural musical style, Midnight Groovers have created commercial success with their rhythmic sounds, playing to huge crowds in their homeland as well as in the French Antilles and St. Lucia, where they are very popular,” the organizers said. “With more than thirty albums under their belt and a string of hits songs as part of their repertoire including “Pou Yon Koko,” “Milk and Honey” and “Mandella” to name a few, the group can still rock any festival stage.”

Oktoberfest En Kweyol was staged by Windward and Leeward Brewery Limited (WLBL) and has been endorsed by Folk Research Center and the St. Lucia Tourist Board.

It was sponsored by LIME, Landmark Event and the official media partners the Wave, Daher Broadcasting Service (DBS) and RCI.

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27 Comments

  1. daughter'slove
    October 9, 2013

    My father has promoted cadance music and will not stop until God calls him home.He has made Dominica proud and his family too, so weither he performs at WMCF or not he is Chubby and the Midnight Groovers Kings of Cadance.Over 30 albums all in his head, a great bassman, drummer and lead singer no man can take daddy’s talent from him weither they support him or not. Daddy u are my greatest singer, musician and am your biggest fan. Keep cadance alive.

  2. Mary Black
    October 8, 2013

    The WCMF are two face.

  3. Sparky
    October 7, 2013

    Big Up to MIDNIGHT GROOVERS . . . .

  4. ParoInRoseau
    October 7, 2013

    When CHUBBY will die they will put midnight groovers to headline the show! Jeff Joe had to die for them to call his name thousands of times….as though they were so in touch with the man…So Dominicans be! When you there nobody wants from the time you go everybody misses you! I’m glad they get to go out and live it up!

  5. CECIL
    October 7, 2013

    WEH WEH WEH It is amazing how hypocrite and wicked we Dominicans are?
    I have attended all 16 festivals and I love Midnight Groovers. I AM FROM THE OLE SCHOOL and have been disappointed with them at the WCMF.
    All but once they were the noisiest band in the entire Festival with the worse mixing.
    The last two years I have witness people leaving their performances in droves.
    They seemed to be good at the CITP, but when it comes to WCMF they have been poor.
    Guitars too noisy, cowbell too loud and Chubby sounds too horse like he has lost the clarity of his voice. Chubby needs to sharpen his stage presence.
    Apart from the bassman no one else moves on stage.
    I am happy they are excluded this year to take stock of themselves and regroup and come back as true Kings Of Cadence.
    Their repertoire has been identical and the reason people leave is because they are too monotonous and boring.
    Its good they performed well in St Lucia and hope they take this critics in good stead and come out more professional next year.
    Our bands on a whole needs to up their game.
    They are too ORDINARY.
    $325.00 IS A LOT OF MONEY TO PAY TO SEE THE SAME OLE SAME OLE.
    Step up your stage presence and sound quality Dominica bands.
    When the foreign bands perform, the sound is totally different.
    Does that mean we are technically deficient ?

    • ParoInRoseau
      October 7, 2013

      you’ve been going to creole fest for the amount of years its been in existence!!! And you still wanna talk? you love the rubbish and nonsense you pay for year after year then!

    • Mary Black
      October 8, 2013

      Why dont you blame the engineers for such thing they are the ones who has to set the equipments up and not Groovers. The same way they does make sure that the performers from abroad sound be good they should do the same for the Groovers. It is being done deliberately so that people could could talk badly about the Groover like you are doing.

  6. Wanda
    October 7, 2013

    So….what is “Dominica music”?.. 8-O bouyon or Cadence? Big up to Sly, Marcel and the players… :wink: :wink:

    • Abby
      October 8, 2013

      Dominica music is those two and more. Jing-ping is ours too. But we are so bent on not liking what is ours that we cannot see anything good that our own people are producing. We also need to understand that more often than not local bands are not given the opportunity to do a sound check and they dont know how they sound on stage. One gets the impression that sounds men seem to have their favourites – the biggies from abroad and the smallies from home have to take what they get.
      Other thing, all bands play their hits wherever they play. Kassav plays the same songs too. Nobody complains…
      Give ourselves a chance, please.
      Ophelia headlined a festival this weekend too in Martinique. What do we say to that?

  7. October 7, 2013

    Playing me some Groovers right now CoCo Sec. etc.Big Up Groovers.

  8. yardie
    October 7, 2013

    great is great and no one can underrate mid-nite groovers is on of the bigest ting to come out of dominica so organizers of wcmf put all you pride behind and give the people what they want they are the ones paying there money

  9. white diamon
    October 7, 2013

    when the organisers love compac,reggae and soca more than CADENCE LYPSO which is DOMINICA’s own,how you expect them to respect GROOVERS?
    GROOVERS should be gracing every WCMF stage every year,as THE KINGS OF CADENCE LYPSO.Also every DOMINICAN band should be challenge to make a cadence lypso song for the independance celebration,even if they not in the competition.as a mark of respect to the GENRES.

  10. MRS D
    October 7, 2013

    SHAME ON DFC GROVER SHOULD NEVER MISS A YEAR IN WCMF NEVER!!!

  11. Rastafari
    October 7, 2013

    That’s because the organizers of DWCMF in Dominica have no VISION! They only see as far as their eyes can see. This is a good deal for Midnight Groovers.

  12. John
    October 7, 2013

    When we have someone from another country running our festival what do u expect. Chubby should be in the line up his band is the original creole music band in DA. He has maintained through out the years, shame on Piper, Wadix etc, soon everyone will be heading to SLU.

  13. ashton merrifield
    October 7, 2013

    creol fest was origenated in grand bay yes in the early 70S what we call fete esedor we had band from allover d,a in one night some time four diffrient band playing in defrient location.if you remember 1980 we had ener circle band from jamaica in bala park so tell dem yes we can,so big up sly and d boys that still there making it happen,wadada south city massive we large,

  14. ZULU
    October 7, 2013

    St. Lucians appreciate chubby more than we do. While we are now taking out the creol roots of our music festival st. Lucia will pick up. High time we learn. I will never pay a ticket to come home and watch sean paul and no reggae in creol festival. I can watch chubby whole week creol in the park an every night on festival weekend.

    Tell me how many times Wck played in a song splash in JA. Love what is yours or you will loose it. Pretty soon i will be going “creol fest in “st. Lucia” they already have direct flights from the US.

  15. grell
    October 7, 2013

    Love the The Midnight Groovers,Chubby is my legend.Very sad to see that in their own country that they are not appreciated,especially the festival commisssion.You all need to stop pressing your local artist.Colin Piper you still live in the colonial days,Shame on you and your colleagues.Will be home for the celebration,but am not supporting the creole festival, no Groovers no festival.

    • Jimi Hendrix
      October 7, 2013

      Please explain what you mean when you say they are not appreciated? Your statement is too broad.

  16. Jay
    October 7, 2013

    Do I get the impression that this St. Lucia event, cleverly staged before our own sounds more authentic “creole” than our DWCMF? The company behind the event are well well versed in international marketing and one wonders why they appear to see more merit in Midnight Groovers than we do ourselves? Have they stolen a march on us? Time for some serious reflection

    • I Like!!
      October 7, 2013

      By know means this Oktober fest is there to compete with DWCMF, its on a low key just like Dominica Jazz & Creole by know means is there to Compete with St. Lucia Jazz…the two countries both celebrate creole month in October..

  17. Shabin
    October 7, 2013

    Big up Midnight Groovers…keep shining. Shame Shame Shame on the Dominica Creole Festival Organizers for not including Midnight Groovers in the line up.

  18. Serving the Public!!
    October 7, 2013

    You see, the powerful band is not well recognised in its own country. Another country has seen their potential.

    • Lilly
      October 7, 2013

      I’m in the US and whenever I go to a St. Lucian function they play midnight Groovers. The ST. Lucians love them some Midnight Groovers.

  19. M.J.W
    October 7, 2013

    Positive vibes… Had a few beers with one of the Members in St. Lucia on Friday night…good to hear that they performed creditably….

  20. simple DA.
    October 7, 2013

    great band am proud

  21. October 7, 2013

    Great Vibe indeed Midnight, great avenue to promote the World Creole Fest and the Cadence lypso on the 19th, hope that was done.

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