Festival International De Reggae De Montreal

Recently due to some miscommunication I was left waiting for two hours at the Holiday Inn for a friend to pick me up after my 15 day stint on my boat. Fuming, tired, hungry and in need of a glass of red I gave up and found another way home. I vented via facebook to a friend who gave me this response, “What happened to laid back don't give a damn about time Tracy?? Sheesh, amazing what a boat can do eh? :)”
He was right, I have been back for four months and along with my tan I seem to have shedded my laid back easy going Caribbean attitude. Luckily I had planned to return to Montreal for the International Reggae Festival put on by the Caribbeans of the city. Just walking around the beautiful city with European flair brought me back down. I met up with a friend who I had met the last time I visited Montreal. He is from Martinique but studies in France and now is doing an internship in Ottawa.
It seems he has spent a bit too much time off the island though because he wanted to show up at the festival right at 4:00pm, the time it was officially supposed to start. There was no one there. The volunteers were just showing up and I had overheard one of the head ladies given them heck for bringing alcohol into one of the tents. One of the guy’s working the event said, “Well they are Caribbeans it will start a bit late you know how they are.”



My sweet French friend noticed my Bob Marley T-shirt and was disappointed he didn’t dress up for the occasion. I had to remind him he was black and there wasn’t really a need for it, he already represented. We decided to sit on a patio in the old town grab some beers and nachos and watch the street performers. At around 7:00pm, 3 hours later it started to get underway. Not too many showed up but it was still a great atmosphere with the slight smell of grass in the air. There was a mixture of Caribbean music including some crazy Soca, the singer demonstrated with his gyrating what to do when your lady is giving you directions.

One singer would just decide to change his song in the middle and move on to another he preferred more. In typical Caribbean style they just went with the flow and ease, in the end it just all worked out. I would have liked to stay the entire weekend to see the rest of the festival but I had a date with Michael Buble in the nation’s capital so I got my chilled out self on a bus to Ottawa.