Thank God it’s Friday

Crowds at Anse La Raye’s Fish Fry. Photo: WCC/Clare Pengelly

Try Jump Up’s street food for an authentic taste of Saint Lucia

Most places in the Caribbean have a carnival once a year. In Saint Lucia, it’s a carnival atmosphere every Friday night. The main attraction is the Friday night Jump Up in Gros Islet, just a short walk or taxi ride from Rodney Bay. It is well named. You hear it before you see it. Reggae and soca blasts out from vast speaker stacks and people sing and laugh in the streets, jumping up to dance by themselves or with complete strangers.

The streets are lined with stalls heaving with bottles of spirits, with a large bottle of spiced rum usually at the centre of it all. Each bar owner has their own favoured concoction.

There is plenty of street food to try too – lots of zingy jerk chicken, barbecue ribs and spicy roti.

The action centres round the intersection between Dauphin Street and Marie Therese Street where the speakers and the DJ booth is set up. You will see tourists and locals alike involved in impromptu dance-offs. It is all pretty good natured although the local police are on hand to make sure things don’t get out of control.

Many tourists go earlier in the evening, from around 8pm, and the atmosphere certainly changes after midnight but you don’t get much more authentic than this. If you like authentic but want a quieter experience, head down the coast to the fishing town of Anse La Raye.

Here, on Friday nights the town comes alive for its weekly Fish Fry when whatever the town’s fishermen have caught that morning is charcoal grilled for residents and visitors alike.

Still great after all these years

Sugar growing started in Saint Lucia in the 18th century and for the next two centuries, it was the main export. And wherever sugar is grown, rum quickly follows.

The traditional process for making rum is deceptively simple. You squash sugar cane for its juice which is then fermented with yeast and distilled to get the raw spirit. This is then matured for a few years in oak casks. A fraction of the rum evaporates – known as the angel’s share – while the remainder takes its flavour from the charred interior of the casks.

With sugar cane production less important now, most distilleries start with molasses instead of raw sugar cane but the process is still pretty much the same as it was two centuries ago.

Today, Saint Lucia Distillers are still making rum at their distillery in the Roseau valley, just south of Marigot Bay. It makes around 4,000 litres a day, the vast majority of which is enjoyed during the island’s carnival.

In recent years, the company has won many awards for its Forgotten Casks rum. The story goes that in 2007, a fire devastated the distillery and the company had to find new places to store its casks. Some were overlooked and found only recently. When the distillers tried the rum inside, it was found to be sensational. Whether the story is apocryphal or not, the rum is delicious.

The distillery runs tasting tours and you should try some of the various rum-based liqueurs on your visit. The distillery’s 160 proof Denros rum is not for the faint-hearted – sipping it transports you to the dentist’s chair and your lips become anaesthetised. More information www.saintluciarums.com

Below: A copper still at The Roseau Distillery Left: Chairman’s reserve, finest Saint Lucia Rum

No matter what your musical taste, you will find something to get you singing and dancing in Saint Lucia of Saint Lucia The Sounds From steel pan to soca:

Music is everywhere in Saint Lucia. Soca music blares from speaker stacks at island parties. The unmistakeable ring of steelpan rises up from open sheds as bands rehearse for their carnival appearance. Bar-goers sink beers as they chill out to reggae in the island’s bars. Or you might just hear Tammy Wynette baring her soul on your taxi driver’s radio.

What...what was that? Musical tastes are eclectic in Saint Lucia and, yes, they even extend to country and western.

Soca music emerged in the 1970s and has since become one of the most popular musical genres in Saint Lucia. Tracks like Who Let The Dogs Out by the Baha Men and Turn Me On by Kevin Lyttle have since brought soca to international attention and it remains hugely popular on the island.

One of the most popular names in soca today is Teddyson John (www. teddysonjohn.com). TJ, as he is usually known, is a vocalist, drummer, keyboardist and percussionist who hails from the Saint Lucian Capital Castries. He learned music in church in his youth but switched from gospel and R & B to soca in 2007.

In 2016, TJ was named Best Calypso/ Soca Entertainer at the International Reggae and World Music Awards and released the infectious soca track Allez. In 2017 was also conferred the MBE for his services to music.

In the 2019 International Soca Monarch competition in Trinidad and Tobago, TJ came second in the Groovy category. He headlined the U7 concert on Pigeon Island in July 2019.

Another soca artist you will hear on almost constant replay on local radio is 26-year-old Ricky T who popularises the bouyon soca sub-genre, which blends 1990s bouyon music with soca.

Ricky T is famous for his rallying cry “Wham to Dem!” from his 2007 hit Pressure Boom. The artist won the Saint Lucia Power Soca Monarch title in 2019, adding to more than 20 soca titles over the years.

St Lucia’s Dennery Segment, though not a new phenomenon, achieved maximum exposure thanks to soca king Machel Montano’s song “Showtime”, on the Pim Pim Riddim. At 147 beats per minute, the song’s driving drum kicks, heavy bass, and flutes - which gave it a frenetic sound, similar to Jab Jab music - combined to send soca lovers into a frenzy, as Machel commanded them to “bend over, bend over, bend over, showtime!” For more information visit www.caribbean-beat.com/issue-155/ dennery-style#axzz647wKty3V Country and western has a

Practice makes perfect: The Pantime Steel Orchestra rehearse their infectious sound Saint Lucian soca star Ricky T

surprisingly strong following in Saint Lucia.

Some argue that Lucians got bitten by the country and western big after the Second World War, when the US had airforce bases here; others say it came from the 1960s when locals travelled to Florida seeking work and came back clutching vinyl.

Local radio station Hot 105.3 FM plays hours of country music every Sunday while others play it throughout the week. On Saturday nights, the place to go for country is upstairs from the Castries market.

Dennery-born Cowboy (Shervon) Sealy is the country’s best known singer, appearing at Sandals and other resorts in Saint Lucia, and got into the scene 16 years ago.

“I got to like country music after hearing a friend sing it so much at work. I noticed I had the voice for that kind of music.

Whatever your musical taste, Saint Lucia will have it covered.