Jamaica Night Party a smashing success

Kingston, Jamaica, Gleaner

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Niagara Falls, Canada – The most-anticipated event at each Kiwanis Eastern Canada and the Caribbean Convention is the annual Jamaica Night Party.

Not known to disappoint the loyal following, last Thursday night the Kiwanian event planning extraordinaires (Wray and Nephew's Arlene Linton, Jam Venture's Dollis Campbell and quantity surveyor, Llewellyn Allen), transformed the Our Lady of Peace Hall in Niagara Falls, Canada. More than 300 people turned out for jerked pork and chicken, fried dumplings, hard-dough bread and Leighton McKnight’s music.

With 80 Kiwanians traveling from Jamaica for this year’s conference, joining more than 700 service-oriented leaders from Canada and the rest of the Caribbean, McKnight took dancing feet through the evolution of soca, starting with Passion, and by the time he got to Allison Hind’s Roll it Gal, the party lovers were rolling.

A musicologist of no mean order, the renowned financial guru drew from a compilation of Jamaican celebration tunes heralded by The Gaylads, Alton Ellis, Heptones, and The Caledonians, who had the waistlines and legs moving to oldies like My Jamaican Girl and Party Time.

Taking a stroll down Motown lane, McKnight slowly moved into The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, and Culture Club, showing immense versatility, before catering to the need of lovers in the house with The Chilites, Temptations, and Earth, Wind and Fire.

At midnight, in advance of Canadian authorities closing down another Jamaica Night in their province, McKnight bade the party people au revoir.