It was the night before Cup Match, traditionally when Soca artists descend on the Island and whip a crowd into a frenzy — wining, waving and jumping.

But alas, soca was off the table this year and something new and different was ready to take its place — EDM or Electronic Dance Music.

It was the night of Major Lazer, the super group’s first time to the Island and expectations were high.

I went to the show mainly out of curiosity as I wasn’t sure if Bermudians would enjoy this style of music, which is popular in Europe and the US.

But enjoy was an understatement because as soon as the DJs – Walshy Fire, Diplo and Jillionaire — took to the stage, the crowd was “turnt” up from start to finish.

The event took place at Par-la-Ville Car Park, which easily held more than 2,000 partygoers. Before the main act, the crowd was entertained by YGS Sound, Tarantula and Skratch Bastid. Unfortunately, I missed YGS and Tarantula but thoroughly enjoyed Skratch Bastid’s set.

The Canadian DJ played for about an hour and was able to mix songs that you would never think belonged together. In addition to that, he juggled hip hop, reggae, soca, pop and EDM into his set and fused the music perfectly. He had the crowd jumping and screaming the whole time and I was disappointed when he left the stage.

But my disappointment quickly disappeared when Major Lazer came to the stage shortly after. Announced by Uzimon, the three DJs appeared with fog machines, an amazing light show and killer dancers.

Like Skratch Bastid, Major Lazer are very skilled with mixing music and playing songs on beats that theoretically make no sense but in reality were perfect.

And having Walshy Fire as the main MC was brilliant as he was engaged with the crowd, danced all night and wore the Bermuda flag as a cape. Highlights included a remix of the ’90s hip hop classic Jump, Watch Out For Dis, One Wine, Lean On, a ton of old school reggae and much more.

One of my favourite parts of the night was when Walshy Fire played a dub plate from Madonna singing on a reggae beat, claiming it was the only one in the world. It only played for about ten seconds but it was very impressive.

The show was quite extraordinary and I thoroughly enjoyed myself, however, I was disappointed that my favourite Major Lazer song didn’t play, the All My Love remix with Machel Montano and Ariana Grande.

I will say that it was also very disappointing that Jillionaire chose to post on Instagram and Facebook negative opinions of Bermuda which, I’m told, deterred many from attending the event.

All in all, the promoters did an excellent job and Cup Match Summer Splash was a world-class event.