AN­GE­LO JE­DIDI­AH

an­ge­lo.je­didi­ah@guardian.co.tt

“Car­ry on, car­ry on!”

This was the pre­vail­ing mind­set of hun­dreds of so­ca lovers who braved rainy con­di­tions to turn out for Patrice Roberts’ free Car­ni­val con­cert at Fla­va Vil­lage, Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah.

With rags in one hand and um­brel­las in the oth­er, pa­trons trudged through the mud, form­ing long lines as they wait­ed pa­tient­ly to en­ter the venue—prov­ing once again that not even the weath­er could dull the Car­ni­val so­ca spir­it.

Ti­tled Al­ways Us, the con­cert kicked off on sched­ule on Thurs­day night at 9 pm, with Roberts tak­ing the stage and im­me­di­ate­ly com­mand­ing the spot­light.

“We came here for a good time. And food. And Patrice! Free-99 - we love that price,” one pa­tron told Guardian Me­dia.

“Rain does on­ly stop crick­et, and right now we here for Patrice Roberts, so en­joy yuh self,” an­oth­er said.

And for “punch” ven­dor and Lo­cal Culi­nary Am­bas­sadors As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Michael Williams, the night - along with the pre­vi­ous evenings of shows at the Car­ni­val Vil­lage - proved to be a ma­jor boost for food ven­dors at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah.

“As you can see, it ram out tonight, and the night now start,” Williams said.

Backed by the pul­sat­ing rhythms of a live band, the so­ca queen de­liv­ered elec­tri­fy­ing vo­cals and a high-en­er­gy per­for­mance that sent waves through the mas­sive crowd. Roberts nev­er missed a beat as she ef­fort­less­ly held her own, while al­so mak­ing room on stage for fel­low so­ca artistes, in­clud­ing Farmer Nap­py, Mi­cal Te­ja, Yung Bred­da, Ani­ka Berry, Shur­wayne Win­ches­ter, and oth­ers.

Among those who took to the stage was so­ca duo Full Blown—broth­ers Kevon and Ko­ry Hart—who de­liv­ered one of this year’s break­out so­ca hits, Re­spect­ful­ly Yours.

Roberts al­so per­formed her 2026 so­ca re­leas­es, in­clud­ing Rock So, Cap­i­tal, and Bad Gyal fea­tur­ing Nail­i­ah Black­man.

In be­tween songs, Roberts made sure to give her fans “ten times over” the love and ap­pre­ci­a­tion for their un­wa­ver­ing sup­port through the years.

She ex­plained that the free con­cert was in­spired by the eco­nom­ic chal­lenges many are cur­rent­ly fac­ing and served as a way to show grat­i­tude to her loy­al fans who have sup­port­ed her through both the highs and the lows.

“Mon­ey is not every­thing, but com­mu­ni­ty is the best. And as long as I live, I am gonna sing - song af­ter song, hit af­ter hit- for my fans, my lovers, my fam­i­ly, till I old and grey.”