Music, food and fire make a great Fort Night

More than 100 people filled Fort Hamilton for the first Fort Night Fever.

Guests were treated to a live band, amazing limbo dancing, a buffet dinner and bottomless rum swizzle.

The event, organised by the City of Hamilton, started at 7pm last night.

Guests were given a cold cup of rum swizzle on arrival as the sounds of Working Title played in the background.

The band was fronted by the talented and energetic Lamont Robinson, alongside McCartney Darrell and Serafina.

Tour

Before the event kicked off, guests were invited to have a tour of the fort .

My particular tour was conducted by Kevin Smith, one of the organisers of the event. He led us fearlessly through the dark galleries of the fort and gave us a bit of history.

I hadn’t been in the fort since I was a child so it was a nice refresher.

Back up top, Working Title were performing reggae songs just as the dinner was served.

Guests were treated to a lovely buffet, catered by Four Ways. It had a spinach salad, rolls, coleslaw, ribs, barbecue chicken, fishcakes, macaroni and cheese and peas and rice.

The food was delicious but the buffet was packed up quickly, so I wasn’t able to get another piece of Chicken. Not that I needed it or anything.

Once everyone had eaten, the show began.

Entertainment

Fiery limbo dancer Markita Joell, otherwise known is The Island Teaser, entertained the guests following dinner.

Markita went around to the tables and got a few brave volunteers to come up and limbo dance with her.

The dancing went a few rounds until the bar was far too low for anyone other than Markita to go under.

The winner by crowd applause was Tareek Somner, who had a chance to win $1,000 if he could limbo under the bar.

He gave it two tries before bowing out gracefully.

The crowd was then treated to a performance by Markita, including a dance to soca song “She Ready”.

She then included fiery baton in her act while dancing under the bar.

Markita took it to another level by lighting the bar on fire and continuing to drop it lower and lower until it was almost on the ground.

She still managed to get underneath to much applause from the audience.

Party

After Markita’s performance, the audience was treated to soca and reggae music provided by Working Title, with singer Lamont getting people up to the stage to dance.

The party ended at 11pm after raffle prizes were given out.

All in all, Fort Night Fever was a fun event and had something for everyone.

My only criticism would be that it needed to have more of a party atmosphere once the guests arrived.

The music was a bit too slow at the beginning and during dinner. I personally wanted to be dancing from the minute I arrived until I left.

However, the City of Hamilton did a great job with this event and I look forward to future events.