Tanya C. Ellis, Gleaner Writer

Left: The hotties were out to party but the party was not hot enough to inspire much dancing. Right: This lady was among the few who dropped legs at Foot-loose last Saturday. - photos by Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer

If you were looking for a place to get a proper fix of '90s retro dancehall and roots reggae music on the weekend, then The Pantry in New Kingston would have been the best place to be last Saturday night.

The lawn setting was perfect for an all-night party, but the crowd did very little to reflect this when The Gleaner arrived at around midnight to an ice-cold welcome of free Kingston Beer by the appropriately clad winter-boots-wearing reps of the event sponsors.

It was the type of party you attend when you feel that you are a little too old for the traditional club scene, but not quite old enough for the oldies-but-goodies sessions.

Very few patrons made the effort to combine the right attitude to a song like Matey Free Paper Bun, and what epitomises 'killjoy' was truly felt. Somehow, the music seemed to just be dragging on, and the laid-back vibe from the patrons was not very encouraging.

The DJ struggled to get the crowd psyched up until around 2:00 a.m. when the more raunchy lyrics roared from the sound system and more people got into the groove and showed physical appreciation for the type of music that was more fitting to their era. So tunes like Bum Flick received a warm welcome from those willing to go down low and bubble to the hardcore rhythm, but that vibe soon died down.

One group of female patrons expressed disappointment regarding how lifeless the usually hype event was. "It seems so unreal," said Cheryl, "something is definitely in the air preventing this large-enough crowd from dancing, a party is no fun if all the patrons just stand around looking at each other." Other patrons expressed the same disappointment saying that Footloose is normally synonymous with a vibesy party but, on this occasion, that was not the case.

Failed attempt

In an attempt to reboot the energy on the lawn, DJ Marvin of FAME FM pulled out some of today's most current tracks which received a mixture of leg movements, head nods, and bum shakes from various appreciative patrons, but soon they became immune to those as well.

Before long, it was back to the gloom of watching each other stand to the music. The music was right, the crowd was massive but the vibe, which is the key element of a successful party, was absent for a reason unknown to the patrons who came expecting the best collaboration of retro music and dance styles. Unfortunately for them, World Dance would be the only song that would allow for that mass routine. Not even songs by Buju Banton could save the night as patrons started to filter out at around 2:30 a.m.