DLR Festival Of World Cultures
On the main stage, the Caribbean icon Calypso Rose, a real Calypso Queen, gave this Sunday afternoon crowd the right level of calypso fun with highly charged levels of sauciness (lost on the children). The bawdy ‘Sugar, Brown Sugar’ and the lewd ‘A Man is A Man’ sat alongside the prostitutes story of ‘Rum and Coca Cola’ (made famous controversially by The Andrews Sisters over 60 years ago).
Across on the Royal Marine Hotel (with the advantage of a license – in contrast to the main stage), after a few technical issues, Túcan came on to relative apathy. But with their blend of acoustic instrumental reinterpretations (think Rodrigo y Gabriela with less metal more dance), proceeded to warm up this seated relaxed crowd. ‘Around The World’ (Daft Punk) and ‘Out Of Space’ (The Prodigy) got claps of recognition and the crowd seemed to genuinely enjoy them, as the band slowly won over this laid back crowd.
The Afresh Band’s upbeat African rhythms though were of less interest to the crowd as the wind picked up boding rain (that never came). But a few up the front danced until dusk sent them into the bars and the DART home.