Beautiful Dominica: Dominican Music + Culture at the World Creole Music Festival

Words by Jesse Serwer
Photos by Martei Korley

The 16th edition of the World Creole Music Festival last month brought acts from Jamaica (Damian Marley, Tarrus Riley) Haiti (T-Vice, Kreyola), Barbados (Krosfyah), Guadeloupe (Luc Leandry, Zouk Machine) and other islands to Dominica’s national stadium, known as Windsor Park. But amidst the sounds of zouk, kompa, reggae and soca, though, the emphasis was squarely on Dominica and its homegrown music styles, kadans (or cadence-lypso) and bouyon.

In addition to closing sets from Triple Kay (Friday night), WCK (Saturday night) and Midnight Groovers (Sunday night), the festival featured performances from bouyon’s rising star Asa Bantan and a showcase of Dominica’s female singers including kadans queen Ophelia Joseph (that’s her above) and the multi-talented Michele Henderson. Dancers from the Kalinago territory, the Caribbean’s last vestige of native culture, performed traditional folkloric dance, while a jump-up session on Sunday night gave crowds a taste of the island’s carnival, Mas Dominik. (Watch a video of the madness here).

The 16th edition of the festival was dedicated to the memory of the country’s most iconic musician, Jeff Joseph. Known locally as “Jeff Joe,” Joseph died just weeks after making his last-ever appearance during the 2011 edition of the WCMF. A museum area gathered album covers, photographs and other artifacts from his career, while every artist who performed called out his name. As the festival neared its close in the early hours of Monday morning, Jeff Joe’s old band Grammacks reunited for a comprehensive set of their greatest tunes together.

Click through for photos highlighting Dominica’s music and culture at the WCMF, and stay tuned to LargeUp for more images from the festival.

Windsor Park, Dominica’s national cricket stadium, was the site of the 16th annual World Creole Music Festival

The crowd on opening night. Much of the crowd at WCMF comes for the weekend from neighboring islands St. Lucia, Martinique and Guadeloupe, all of which offer ferry service to and from Dominica.

Karina Cultural Group, a group of dancers and percussionists from Dominica’s Kalinago territory, perform a traditional folkloric dance set to tribal drums.

Dominica is home to the last concentrated group of native people in the Caribbean. Dubbed Caribs by Christopher Columbus, Kalinago people live throughout the island, with over 2,000 residing in what’s known as Kalinago territory on the eastern side of the island. Recent years have seen Kalinago traditions on Dominica revived through the formation of traditional culture groups, and the inclusion of Kalinago people at major cultural events such as the WCMF

The Karina group’s dances reflected traditional Kalinago activities, in this case hunting.

Bouyon artist Asa Bantan is Dominica’s top young star at present. His opening-night performance set the tone for the festival.

Asa Bantan drew some of the most enthusiastic—if not the most enthusiastic—crowd responses of the WCMF.

Some of the hits Asa Bantan performed at WCMF included “I Know People that Know People” and “One Man” (hear and read about that one here)

A local dancer joined Asa Bantan for part of his set

Among this dude’s feats included sliding across the stage on his head.

Asa has his female fans exalting in ecstasy.

Dominican ladies put their hands up for Asa

The climax of Asa Banton’s set came during the performance of “Wet Fete.” Water bottles were distributed ensuring the tune lived up to its name.

Having a chat in between sets

Vendors sold Dominican specialties like grilled fish with creole sauce and goat water (goat meat soup). No meal in Dominica is complete without a few drops of the island’s national pepper sauce, Bello (at center in red bottle).

Crowds mill about by the bar

A regal Ophelia Marie performs during the Women Singers of Dominica showcase

Holding down the groove for the queen of kadans

Stilt walkers known as bwa bwa are among the characters that color Dominica during carnival season. Here one heralds the start of the mas band jump-up, giving festivalgoers a taste of Mas Dominik

Another traditional character seen at Mas Dominik is the sensay, colorful figures donning frayed cloth costumes of West African origin. Here a sensay man mixes it up with the crowd.

Taking a break in the action to pose for the camera

Grammacks, celebrating the music of the late Jeff Joe

Grammacks guitarist Anthony “Tepam” George goes for a solo

The view from the bleachers