Carnival season kicks off tonight as Bacchanal Jamaica presents its Xperience Cooler Fete at Mas Camp, St Andrew.

“Bacchanal Jamaica Xperience Cooler Fete is a jump-start, a kind of call-to-arms for soca fans and to give them a taste of what to expect from us in 2019,” Michael Ammar Jr, a director of Bacchanal Jamaica, told the Jamaica Observer’s Splash yesterday.

In typical cooler fete fashion, patrons are encouraged to bring their own drinks to party with friends to the latest soca music, in tonight’s case, being handled by DJs Lantern MD and Tyler. There however will be extras on hand to highlight what Bacchanal Jamaica is offering for the rest of carnival season.

“While most of our costumes are sold out, they will be on display. We have expanded our costumes a bit, like a T-Shirt Sunday line, to ensure all are able to jump with us at our road march in April,” he said.

With a host of free events for Reggae Month, Ammar Jr sees no conflict and is expecting a good turnout.

“The soca audience is not in competition with the reggae audience and we’re sure that the Bacchanal crowd is solid,” he said.

Xperience Cooler Fete represents a significant change in format for the carnival company which would normally have events every Friday night as a lead into carnival weekend.

“We’re changing everything up,” he said.

For 2019, Ammar Jr explained that Bacchanal Jamaica will be putting on several new parties such as Xperience and Bacchanal Jamaica Premium, as well as bringing back two old favourites, Rum For Breakfast (RFB) and Beach J’Ouvert, revamped for 2019. Premium is billed as the purist fete with 100 per cent soca in a very exclusive package, while Beach J’Ouvert will see an intensification of the all-day party that it is.

“RFB is by far the most successful of our newer additions. While for Beach J’Ouvert there will be all-day paint, foam to go along with its drink inclusive format. Premium is a high-end champagne event,” he said.

Making the cut from the old regime are Bacchanal Dancehall and J’Ouvert.

“For the first time, we’ll be partnering with UWI Carnival for our next event on March 9. We’ve helped out before, but this time we’ll have our Bacchanal trucks on the road.”

Ammar Jr added that the goal for 2019 was not to be the biggest band on the road, but concentrate on being the best by focusing on the customer, citing the high ratings that their road march and events have been garnering in the wider carnival community.