With ample alcohol, booming sound systems and top Caribbean musicians, Tobago’s Great Fete Weekend is ‘relllll hottup’ — as locals say — and so are partygoers, outfitted in bikini-tops, short-shorts and the wildest waistlines gyrating on that side of the Atlantic.
This July 29th to August 3rd marks a decade since the first Great Fete Weekend, a five-night party on Pigeon Point Beach in Tobago, Trinidad’s smaller sister-isle with a population of only 54,000.
Dubbed ‘the Caribbean’s Spring Break’ because of its reputation as a no-holds-barred extended weekend of work-free debauchery — similar to Spring Break in the US, Great-Fete is dwarfed by Trinidad’s world-famous Carnival celebrations in February-March.
The Fete showcases the best of Caribbean music, with artistes over the years ranging from soca stars Bunji Garlin, KMC and Superblue; to rapso group 3 Canal, chutney singer Hunter and dancehall artiste Mr. Vegas.
This year’s tenth anniversary will feature reggae-dancehall entertainers Beenie Man and Busy Signal — and that is as much as its founder, Kevan Gibbs, is willing to reveal.
Gibbs: ‘the wickest party’
“We never say who’s performing… so at anytime, anyone can run on stage,” he explains.
This element of surprise has worked well, amplifying the mysterious magnetic pull to the Caribbean melting pot of music and people shaking and grinding to whichever beat comes on.
Great-Fete is the brainchild and baby of Gibbs, a graphic artist, seasoned partygoer and Founder of Sandbox Entertainment.
He established the Fete as one of the various parties that complemented the annual 84-mile powerboat Great Race from the Yacht Club in Trinidad’s Gulf of Paria to Store Bay in Tobago. Great Fete soon grew in size and splendour — so much that when Great Race moved to late August, the Fete retained its foothold on the first weekend of the month. It now draws in crowds four times larger than the Race.
The kernel of an idea for the Fete began with the beach.
Pigeon Point Beach was well-known as the location of the best post-Race party, until in 1998 its management stopped renting it out, forcing parties to move to Canoe Bay — a disjunction if ever there was one, in Gibbs’ opinion.
He convinced them to change their mind, promising to throw the ‘wickest Great Race Party ever’ at Pigeon Point Beach the following year.
Great Fete Weekend: the birth
When August 1999 rolled around, Great Fete Weekend was born. Then, it only lasted from Friday to Sunday.
In its second year, Thursday was added to the lineup, with skepticism from Gibbs’ sponsor, who insisted that no one would party for more than three days in a row.
“We made a deal… if it worked, she would double the sponsorship. On the night of the party, she sheepishly said, ‘So… I guess I have money for you’,” laughs Gibbs.
“Great Fete is ideally placed,” says Jamie, a 25-year-old student at the University of the West Indies. “Carnival is long gone, Christmas is too far off, and we’re smack-dab in the middle of holidays when the excitement of no-school nothingness has worn off and boredom sets in. We’re willing to party for five days straight — ten, if need be.”
‘The longest weekend in the world’
The ‘longest weekend in the world’, as it is advertised, now begins with ‘Welcome Wednesday’: free drinks all night, followed by ‘RetroActive Thursday’ when DJs ‘take you back to school’ with songs that are five to ten years old — barely ‘retro’ but seemingly ancient to the young crowd.
Next in the lineup is ‘Fantastik Cooler Fete Friday’ when everyone brings a cooler with their own drinks, followed by ‘Wet Fete Saturday’.
“I named it ‘Wet Fete’ just because of the beach,” recalls Gibbs. “Then on the day, my friends said ‘Hey let’s get a water truck’ and I replied ‘Yuh mad?!’… Later that night a big water truck pulled up, and they tried to slip it inside behind my back. But then the water hit and people went crazy. We were onto something.”
Wet Fete is by far the most popular of the five nights, with last year’s estimates at 8000 patrons compared to Wednesday’s and Thursday’s 1500 each, Friday’s 5000 and Sunday’s 1000 patrons.
“Wet Fete is the best,” says Christian, a 32-year-old loyal Fete-goer for the past seven years. “I don’t think we ever truly grow out of the five-year-old desire to jump around the yard dancing in the rain, sprinklers or a hose… Wet Fete is that, but for adults.”
The Weekend culminates in Insomniac Soca Sunday, which finishes around noon on Monday, when a cash prize of $10,000TT(£1,100) is awarded to the ‘last crew standing’ who attended all the events and still finds energy to jump through whatever hoops the DJ proposes, such as aerobics or running back and forth into the ocean.
‘A rite of passage’
Blossoming from a little beach party into the spectacular event it is today, Great Fete continues to grow in size. However its significance is not universal.
While many go every year, 23-year-old Kyle states: “It was a one-time experience for me. A group of guys packed into a tiny apartment meant for two. We were so broke, but we all wanted to do this. Sleeping three hours a day, lying to your boss to sneak away from work… it was one of the best times of my life — but I wouldn’t spoil it by doing it again.”
Whether a one-time hurrah or a hearty mainstay, Great Fete is an experience to remember. As Gibbs states: “It is really more of a rite of passage than a party.”
Book now!
Currently priced at $400TT(£45) for a season pass to all five nights, the price escalates to $600TT(£70) closer to the event — so it is wise to book tickets long in advance. The same goes for accommodation; with an average of 17,000 partygoers flooding the tiny island, hotels and villas book up rapidly.
Also, traffic jams are often the reason for missing the party altogether, so it is best to find a hotel or guesthouse within walking distance of Pigeon Point Beach, and ensure that there is an air-conditoning unit in the room — the sweltering Caribbean heat is sometimes too much for even the locals to handle.
There are a range of hotel prices to suit every budget. A few helpful sites are:
http://www.wheretostay.com/caribbean/trinidad_and_tobago/lodging-s254-Tobago.html
http://www.mytobago.info/accommodation1/2/1/tobago_hotels.htm
http://www.tobagohotels.co.uk/
Many places offer discount packages for stays of over seven nights, and most villas are only available to rent by the week. So before or after the five-day nonstop partying, squeeze in a day or two to experience the Tobago attractions that draw people in all year round:
Main Ridge Forest, voted as the World’s Leading Ecotourism Destination in 2006 by World Travel Awards; scuba-diving at Speyside, where there are over 300 species of coral, turtles, nurse sharks, manta rays and the largest known brain-coral in the world; bird-watching some of Tobago’s 210 species at Arnos Vale; and glass-bottomed boat tours to view the coral at Buccoo Reef – not to mention the dozens of beaches dotting the coastline.
Visit www.simplytobago.co.uk and www.trintours.com for further details of tours and prices.
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