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Last time I was in Berlin was for a DJ gig and boy, it was madness! Amazing how these "Berlinians" have formed their own Trini/Soca community and how much love they have for this thing. Fanatical borderline obsessive, freaking marvelous! As far as I understand, we have to recognize Barney Millah as the pioneer for pushing Soca music to this part of the world! Big up Barney, yuh large fi real. This year the Carnival was also seen as a sort of milestone for a new beginning and collaboration between the big Soca DJs/Crews, mainly in Berlin. YARD/Escobar sponsored a section which brought together many DJs and crews such as the infamous Soca Twins, Mash Up Crew, Faluma, Barney Millah and of course Soca lovers in an effort to raise the Carnival bar to a higher level. The first ever mas-camp was resurrected and they're already planning to do it again next year. Big Up!

So the sun shinning and we feeling good. Roll up in Berlin Saturday, the eve before the street parade and the buzz I catch last night still lingering in the form of a hangoverish headache. After a 7 hour grueling journey from Holland, I finally dey dey, step out of the train station and a cool welcoming breeze hit my face, a real "bess" breeze, very necessary. Bag on back, a belly full of anticipation and its off to my logging destination where a BBQ planned and I real glad cause if it's two things we cyah do is 1. make love and 2. party hard on a hungry belly cause yuh done know when Carnival in the air any shot could call. We blaming it on d rum, the ultimate "get out of jail free card!!" Carnival I love you!

The BBQ in full swing, nuff people chillin' and getting ready to hit the city later to a few warm up dances. Rum and Coke flowing like water and we getting tight. Time to move and the first stop is "Heads Up High Carnival Special" - a dance with Soundbwoys Destiny, Soca Twins and a new crew consisting of 2 lil' sweet chickies called Bacchanal Sisters. Very nice first 15 minutes by the ladies. For this crew the sky is the limit with a lil' more Soca knowledge, but big ting all d same! No time to waste and we off to the next stop where Barney Millah was already killin' d place. Vibes nice, plenty old Soca gems like "Sugar Bum Bum" and the original "Congo Man". The whole crew feeling good and tomorrow still to come.

Sunday morning and we up early cause nobody really sleep. Boom Bang and we out the door. A few pit stops for food (remember what I say earlier), and to link up with some more people and then we off to find the truck at the starting point. Seriously, mother nature smiled graciously on the Carnival because the weather was fantastic!! A picture perfect day, clear blue skies and it was nice and cool. Already we had the confirmation that the day would be a "bess" day! There were something like 100 trucks, ours number 97! Wicked! This way I had a chance to easily check out some other sections on the way. Colour, colour and more colour! An unbelievable vibe and energy hovered around in the air. People seemed stoned. High on the good feelings and togetherness, cause for one day it was just let it all go and play yuhself without any inhibitions. What was really striking was to see how much cultural diversity this Carnival had, ultimately responsible for the creativity and originality in costume designs. Most sections were based on ethnicity, paying tribute to their particular culture in costume, song and dance, using the opportunity to share some small part of their culture with the nearly 1 million onlookers. Really incredible to see. From Bolivian, dressed in native gear, doing ritual dances to Chinese, Africans, Brazilians etc. etc. etc. There were also Salsa sections, belly dancers, moko-jumbie sections, too many to mention and of course, the sections like ours (I counted three in total), dedicated to blazing Soca music, focused on replicating the Trinidad & Tobago Carnival experience.

We pull up on our truck and the boys from YARD doing the last touches. A big banner promoting "Carnival Glow" the after-party jam with Faye Ann Lyons and Bunji Garlin hung behind the truck, nuff big Caribbean flags, and some people adding the last touches on a sagaboy puppet dressed in red, supporting Trini to the fullest. Wicked ting! Test, test music, test! Things sounding gooooood! Hendrik from Mash Up Crew start runnin' tunes and we moving to a nice chip. Slowly the band start getting bigger and bigger. Upon examination of the cute ladies in the section and their attire, we could now understand why they doing it again next year. Hats off for this accomplishment on a first attempt. Blue and red sexy creations, tailored specifically to the individual. This added a extra special "ump" to the whole Carnival vibe! A definite plus. An hour later, and the vibe pick up big time. Things swinging and more and more lovely ladies showing up in costumes, I couldn't complain, no not at all and thought to myself (as everyone else there I sure) there was no other place I would rather be! Things nice, alcohol flowing music on point and somehow all the Trini's in Berlin for the Carnival found there way to our truck. Madness and nice too bad. I never knew German women could wine like dat! Big Up Jumbie the German Dancehall Queen and of course Winey Winey. Dem girls lovin up d Soca fi real!

I had the pleasure of finally meeting the lovely and talented Alex Jordan who was on location doing some work for BBC 1Xtra and VP. Who say business and pleasure doh go together? By now it insane. The music pumpin' and D Heat, ahhhhhhh D Heat rising! I finally got behind the pioneer's and it crazy! I jus drop Bunji on the Immediate Riddim and it peer fire. Then I hear Bunji and Faye Ann coming up on the truck! What could be better? Faye Ann start it, murder it, revive it and murder it again before giving Bunji a lil' piece to finish the slaughteration and then poof, dem disappear! Part 2 later at Glow. The massive behind, on top, under the truck was singing the words to every tune, waving whatever they could find, jumping like dem loose dem mind in true Carnival style. The big tunes for the day were of course "Firey" from Bunji, "Get On" from Faye Ann and two tunes that I really didn't expect to be so big, but when dem play people went mad mad mad ... Lil Rick's "Cyah Wait" and Problem Child's "Party Animal"! Personally, Machel's "Blazin' D Trail" was my favourite cause dat's my tune! But what a day!

Later at the Carnival Glow after-party, I saw most of the faces from the parade ... good thing cause now I could pick up where I left off earlier! *wink*. White, white and more white staying true to the concept. Beautiful ting! The venue was ideal, not too small or too big and the only initial negative was that it was too freaking HOT! It was like a sauna inside dat mother. Clothes start clinging to female body parts, and with the combination of, yes alcohol and the good music jammin' from the DJs, what started out as a negative turned quickly into a very pleasing positive. Once again, Bunji and Faye Ann were amazing. Seeing them perform makes me proud to be Trini and witness such incredible talent. Faye Ann made the massive go left, go right ... real crazy ting. Big tune after big tune, and then I saw something I never saw before. First, Bunji had people runnin' to the bar and then clockwise in a circle following some flags! It was maddddd! What a performance from this duo. A fitting end to an unbelievable day!

Once again Jam Masters was deya to bring exclusive coverage in the mighty Jungle Juice name! I hearin' some noise about Carnival in Sweden, so maybe we go be dey. For sure we bum-rushin Notting Hill 2009 but of course, first we in my backyard for Rotterdam Carnival. Big up Berlin and all crew and crew for a super Carnival and a great start to the European Carnival season. Next year we dey for sure and a word of advice for all reading this, make an effort to go Berlin Carnival 2009 cause it maddd!

Daryl aka D1
Jam Masters
Jungle Juice Family, Holland