UPTOWN! UPTOWN!

monday

Last year our friend Rohan Lee returned to Jamaica. Rohan had been living in Belgium for years, he's an old friend. As a roots reggae artist, Rohan has gained quite some recognition in Belgium, Germany, Holland and France with his strong live shows. He even recorded an album while in Belgium. But he's back in Jamaica now, so it was high time to link up.

Rohan came over to our yard where me, my wife and my brother in law with his wife and twin boys are staying. We spent the entire day together and Rohan told us what it was like to be back a yard. It is good to see Rohan again.

At 11pm we took a taxi to Spanish Town road, planning to go to Inner City Dub in the heart of Tivoli Gardens. When we got there there was no party in progress. Only this morning did I see the Facebook message posted at 5 pm on the Inner City Dub page: Greetings DuBites due to the national Nomination tomorrow no permit was granted for any session in the community tonight hence no INNER City DuB tonight. ....Do pardon any inconvenience. ...

Change of plans. Quick thinking: what's the scoop on Mondays? I asked the taxi driver to bring us to Savanah Plaza for Uptown Mondays, a session I had never attended. When we arrived we hung around outside for a while because we only heard R&B and Hip Hop playing and I'm not going inside if there's  no reggae. The Hip Hop segment fortunately ended soon so we had a look inside after paying the JMD 500 admission fee. 

You never really know when's good time to show up anywhere but this is definitely a late session. At midnight the venue was still relatively empty. An hour later patrons start to turn out and at 1.30 pm it's a party. The Uptown Mondays crowd is a mix of Jamaicans and foreigners, all dressed to impress. There's a lot of dancing going on, with groups of boys and girls lining up to show off their latest moves. Rohan is having a good time, I can tell, and so are we. At 2 pm people are still arriving but suddenly the dance is locked off. It takes just a couple of minutes for the entire crowd to clear the venue.  That's it for tonight.