Sunday August 3, Maya Cove - moored in close quarters among a bunch of small boats in their 2nd or 3rd decade that hadn't moved from their spots in at least one decade. The water around them sort of looked as if it had gelled. Excellent dinner at Fat Hog Bobs. The youngish acting hostess there somehow convinced us that we simply HAD to get up at 3 AM and go down to Road Town for the Festival Monday Juvee or “jump up”.<br><br>Remarkably, it was a cinch to get a cab in front of Bob's at 3:30 AM. Got downtown to find several flat-bed tractor-trailers moving through town at 1 mph. Each trailer was piled high with 5 bazillion jiggawatt speakers. We had expected the trailers to be carrying bands playing live music, but people riding on the trailers were mostly sitting, some were shouting or dancing, and what came out of the speakers was mostly pre-recorded or electronically generated drums with occasional live shouting … it wasn’t reggae, or SOCA, or even hip-pop – just drums! The Last Resort’s Singing Chef was not going to be outsophisticated at 4 AM by anyone in Roadtown. A few dozen people following each truck did an ataxic step-dance that moved them along with the truck, but they weren’t likely to work up a sweat or shed any pounds doing it. Most of the people up at that hour were walking alongside the road or just watching. Quite remarkably, everyone outwardly appeared to be sober. No disorderly conduct and very little public drinking to be seen ... more water being consumed than anything else. The oppressive drum beat coming from the trucks must have been sufficiently intoxicating for most people. <br><br>After taking in nearly 2 hours of this nighttime spectacle, but well before it ended, we caught a ride back to Maya Cove with an mild and entirely calm taxi driver who listened intently to a Christian radio program the whole way. Then after sleeping in rather late, and amusing the kids with a demonstration of the ataxic step dance we witnessed, the family decided to get back out on the water and forgo the Parade on Monday afternoon. To put this BVI Festival into perspective I guess we just have to appreciate that Tortola is a very small island. Even the whole of the BVI is small, and its Festival certainly can't compare to that of Trinidad or Rio. <br><br>Who else saw parts of the Festival? Were there any remarkable performances? What did you see and what did you think?<br>
