Soca Ablaze Round One

[dropcap]O[/dropcap]n Friday June 29^th, 2018 from 6pm, the National Cultural Center Grounds will be ablaze, as one of the signature sounds of Carnival, Soca music, takes center stage in the first leg of the Groovy and Power Soca Monarch Competitions.

Over sixty national soca artistes, have registered to secure one of the coveted spots in the preliminary round, split evenly between Groovy and Power Soca. “The response to registration is a clear indication of how magnetic this genre is to the masses,” notes Thomas Leonce CEO of Events Saint Lucia. He adds, “This artform, with its roots in Carnival, has evolved over the years becoming one of the most viable of genres not just during the carnival season, but year-round. Carnival acts as the platform for the launch of new soca music in preparation for an international stage, and ECSL is thrilled to facilitate this process as the producer for these major events”.

The Soca preliminaries will be staged at the National Cultural Center Grounds on Friday June 29 and is free to the public. Gates will open at 5pm with show time scheduled for 6pm. The designated parking for patrons is the NIC Car Park at Barnard Hill.

The following are the list of qualifiers for Soca Preliminaries:

Groovy Soca:

Power Soca:

The qualifiers from the preliminaries (nine each for Groovy Soca and Power Soca) are expected to join the reigning monarchs on Sunday July 15 at The Sab in Vigie to compete for the coveted title of Groovy Soca Monarch and Power Soca Monarch 2018.

In 2017, the titles of Groovy Soca Monarch and Power Soca Monarch were captured by Arthur and Ricky T respectively.

Sponsors for Saint Lucia Carnival include Flow, Platinum Sponsor for the Soleil Saint Lucia Summer Festival, Caribbean Airlines, Bounty Rum and Piton Beer. Media sponsors include The Wave, HTS/Helen 100, Vybe Radio, , DBS, RCI and MBC.

Saint Lucia Carnival is produced in collaboration with the Cultural Development Foundation (CDF)

Full details about Soleil – the Summer of Festivals can be found at soleilsaintlucia.com.