Gareth Davis Sr, STAR Writer

Left: Lynford Mcintosh performs his entry 'Country Life' at the festival song roadshow held in Portland on Saturday. Right: Roy Rayon, veteran festival performer, was a hit.

Experience teaches wisdom, and that was quite evident when veteran festival song singers, Roy Rayon and the Astronauts, gave blazing performances in Portland on Saturday during the festival roadshow.

The Port Antonio town square was packed to its capacity for the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission's Festival Song 2008 competition, which is being dubbed 'What a Bam Bam'.

All 10 contestants delivered smoothly and were cheered on by the capacity crowd. But at the end of completing their warm-up songs, it was obvious that the audience had selected their favourites. And it was also obvious that chief among them were the two veteran performers.

Roy Rayon's back

Rayon, who took the stage as contestant number two, had the crowd in a frenzy during his warm-up as he brought back memories of his hits, including Fever and Give Thanks & Praises.

And buoyed by Rayon's performance, the Astronauts, contestant number 5, continued to dazzle the crowd with previous hits, including Born Jamaican, and Mek We Jam, which left the crowd begging for more.

The contestants then returned to perform their entry songs, which were heavily supported by the crowd during the more than four hours of performance. And apart from Rayon and the Astronauts, there were three other outstanding performers who, based on the crowd response, have a legitimate chance of winning the competition.

Lynford McIntosh with the entry song Country Life, Clevron Edwards with the song Little But Wi Tallawah and arguably the performer of the night Zello, with the song Nah Lef Jamaica were among the favourites.

Zello literally captivated the crowd and had them waving, singing and dancing.

The other performers included Danny Brasco and Isasymba with the song Festival Time Again, the lone female entrant Versatile with the song We Need Love, DJ Speng with Sweet Jamaica, Michael Rutherford with Old Time Festival and hometown boy Monty Montgomery with My Jamaica.

Master of ceremonies was Jerry D, and the backing band was Fabulous Five incorporated. Sponsors of the festival are Digicel, Hot 102, Nationwide Radio, Tastee Patties, Roots FM, Kool 97, Hits 92 FM, X News, Linkz 96, Irie FM, Power 106 and RJR 94 FM.