Carnival season is almost over in Jamaica so the culmination of events is the big finale: the road march, which is the parading of flamboyant costumes, beautiful women and revellers as they dance and wuk up a storm through the corporate area blocking off roads.
Now this events used to be free for everyone but now to be a part of it you have to join a band and to do so you either have to buy a costume or be apart of the t-shirt section. Simple right? Nah, some bands are charging up to $31k just for the shirt so if you cant afford the price tag you just have to settle with marching from the sidelines and creating your own vibe if you got your crew.
But alas if you don’t wanna do that, there are a number of after parties for carnival to take advantage of, one of these is Heineken Rio: a veiwing party where you can view the road march when it passes by while sipping on a cold one🍺.
When the road march ends in the late evening it’s one of the spots to party the night away, if revellers arent too tired, and for persons who want to be part of the carnival vibe. Since I was there two years previous and Heineken is also my favourite brand of beer, it was a no brainer for me.
Entry was $1200 at the gate and revellers with armbands entered free. It started from 12pm and ended 12am. It was not drink inclusive but what makes this a great deal is you pay $500 and you get a mug and drink heineken all night💃 😁 🍻.
I got there around 7pm, met up with fellow beer drinkers and went right in. The place was packed and our first stop was the bar. We got the mugs and began to chug a few down to catch up to everyone else.
The DJ was spinning some dancehall hits and the party was already in full swing with some raunchy songs playing to make the ladies carry on bad (visit my IG for that clip). A few beers in and I was ready to join in the fun.
The transition between genres was good and soon enough it was back to the soca music but again that same old problem of no soca songs older than 2014 or Calypso being played. There was also a whining competition on stage to a song a lot of people didn’t know but people used this chance to get a refill at the bar.
A consistently good vibe continued for the remainder of the night as djs would switch to genres like hiphop and even a lil dancehall infused EDM which went well. Everyone was dancing but it would always go back to soca. There were also patrons trickling in from other events that finished earlier.
Nearing the end of the event i had lost count of how many Heinekens i had drank but it was definetly a good way to close out the carnival season in Jamaica and this was one of the best staging of Heineken Rio to date so, guess who’s coming back next year…
Visit my IG Shermz_partyheart for clips from the event
🍸🍻 PartyHeart ❥ ❣ 🎉 