Rehan Ally
Online Editor
After months of preparation and planning, BC hosted its first Seahawk Festival on Thursday, March 29, 2018, at Central Campus. The festival included headline performances by IRIE, Walshy Fire and Wyclef Jean.
The festival was open to anyone of all ages. BC students as well as non-students of BC attended the festival.
The show opened with student performances. Students from Broward College did musical performances, as well as spoken word poems.
Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School also performed powerful spoken word poems about their traumatizing experience during the shooting that took place recently.
IRIE was the host of the event and he introduced Walshy Fire as the first main act. Walshy Fire warmed up the crowd, starting out by playing classic reggae and dancehall songs.
As his set progressed, he played more modern Caribbean music, including many popular Major Lazer songs, which he is a member of.
The crowd’s energy did not go unnoticed as Walshy Fire repeatedly expressed his love and appreciation for the energy of the crowd.
He also called some student dancers from BC to join him on stage as he played some iconic hip hop songs.
By the end of his set, the crowd had grown in size and was getting more and more excited.
Walshy Fire concluded his performance and told the crowd that he would be enjoying the rest of the festival with them in the crowd and taking photos.
IRIE came out on stage after Walshy Fire and played some popular songs to get the crowd ready for the closing performance.
Grammy Award-winning Wyclef Jean came out on stage for the closing act.
His act opened with a video of clips from all of the well-known work he’s done. The video showed his musical work as well as his reputation as a Haitian icon and international icon.
The crowd went wild when Jean came out on stage. In the beginning of his performance, he began freestyling in different languages like Spanish, French, and Creole.
He sang many popular songs that he’s worked on such as “Hips Don’t Lie” by Shakira and “Maria Maria” by Santana.
During his performance, he brought students up on stage and allowed them to introduce themselves and share their major with the audience.
A highlight of Jean’s performance was filming the music video for his new song, “Sak Kap Fet.” He announced that his crew would be filming some of his performance to include in the music video for the song.
By the end of Jean’s performance, the crowd was filled with nothing but excitement and satisfaction.
Along with the performances on stage, there were also tents set up around the venue with different vendors and food trucks.
Macy’s had a booth set up with perfumes and cosmetics available for purchase. They also gave complimentary samples and tips for applying makeup.
Food vendors included booths selling tacos, corn on the cob and other Latin dishes. Another vendor sold sweets such as fresh squeezed lemonade, shaved ice, smoothies and funnel cakes.
Overall, the first Seahawk Festival proved to be a success. It had a great turnout and was filled with good music and good energy. It set the stage for a new BC tradition that will continue to be a sensation.