Brian Lara Fete - The Review

Fete : Brian Lara

Price: $1400.00

Date: February 19, 2012; 3pm - midnight

I felt fortunate to get tickets to the most expensive fete through a family member. The tickets listed the start time at 3:00 pm and we got their around 5:00 pm. I understand that there was parking available at QRC but we didn’t use it; we were dropped off right at the bottom of the hill. There were security checking tickets at the bottom of the hill and there was another checkpoint a few feet away. Once you got passed the second checkpoint, you board a shuttle bus to take you part way up the hill. It seemed like you blink and you’re already getting off the shuttle. We were immediately greeted with ladies serving sushi and three bars on your right as you walk up the last stretch of the hill.

Once you get to the top, one can’t help but marvel how wonderful Brian’s property is. The fete was about half filled and we took the opportunity to walk around and check out the Port-of-Spain vistas. Simply beautiful! There were a few areas with lawn furniture and couches arranged for small groups to mingle. There were several well-staffed bars around the property, including Nuvo and Tequila. I can’t tell you much about the bars because I already had way too much from Sunny Side Up.

The food tents were to the right of the property. From what I remembered, there was Richard’s Bake and Shark, Chinese food, roti, wild meat and even an oyster vendor. There was a narrow aisle separating the food tents and a hill and there wasn’t a lot of room for patrons in the lineup for food and other guests walking through the area. This was compounded by the fact that the lineup for food was quite long. Up two flights of stairs from the food tents was a crowded area with large round tables if you wanted to sit and eat. There was also a bar in this area as well. Sadly, we went back to the food tents around 8:00 pm and discovered that there was only some Chinese, Richard’s Bake and Shark and a few pieces of wild meat left. Imagine running out of food with about four hours left to go!

Earlier in fete the crowd, who were more mature, seemed interested in eating, drinking and posing rather than partying. It felt like the place to be seen and network. Perhaps if I lived in Trinidad I would have recognized some of the VIPs in attendance. There was practically no dancing! It didn't help that although there was music, there was no DJ and it sounded like someone just loaded the mix tape. This changed around 8:30 pm when someone came on the stage and was pumping up the crowd. This is probably when you can say the party started and hopefully the live performances were coming on later. However, for me this was about the time I had enough (still exhausted from Sunny Side Up and needed to get a couple hours sleep before J'ouvert) and we left around 9:00 pm.

Overall, this was not my kind of crowd, not my kind of fete and won’t be going next year.