The year was 1804 and it actually happened on the first day of that year, led by Jean Jacques Dessalines, Toussaint Louverture and others, Haiti became the first free black republic in the world and the second independent state in the Western Hemisphere.

For the past five years, Kaliko entertainment has dedicated their musical passion by putting together a yearly event that showcase some of the best musical and theatrical talents among some of the best Haitian artists around.

This year’s line up was supposed to be as follow: Krezi Mizik, T-Vice, Nu Look, Djakout Mizik, Zin, Carimi, Azor, Gabel, Jesifra, Hangout, Jr Reid and the featured band for the night the legendary group Zekle. During the press conference which took place the day before the event @ Marabou Café, Kaliko production explained to members of the media why the scheduled line up had to be altered, “we were hopping to have every single group posted on the flyer but, due to some items beyond our control, we were not able to have a couple of the bands with us tomorrow”. Present at the press conference were some musicians from Krezy, Hangout, T-vice and Mr Gerald Firmin of Kaliko productions also Mia Lopez of Miamedia.

A $30 admission was a small price to pay to see Gabel filling up the stage with great chemistry and charisma, freely dressed up Gabel showed a very promising future with a different twist. Hangout a very exciting band with an everlasting dosage of entertainment was very pleasant to groove to. The Haitian musical culture is not only konpas, the culture also consists of roots music, a blend of African mix drums with some congas. Unfortunately that type of music was not part of the festivities that night since Azor was not able to make it to Florida; nevertheless, the night was overall satisfying. The regulars entertained the crowd as usual, but the outstanding performance award for the night goes to ZEKLE. It was like they’ve never left showbiz.

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