Bermudians have been travelling to Jamaica for Reggae Sumfest for years – and this year I decided to make the pilgrimage myself.

From catching a ride with reggae artist Assassin, to chilling backstage with Gyptian, to meeting world record breaking sprinter Usain Bolt, the trip was non-stop adventure from the moment my friend Jenia and I landed in Montego Bay.

It didn't start the way we hoped our bags didn't arrive and we received no sympathy from the American Airlines agents at the airport, so we stuck with the only other Bermudian on the plane and got a ride to our hotel with her Jamaican driver, 'Just Cool'.

After a quick check-in and four rum punches, we hit the gift shop to find something we could wear that wouldn't make us stand out as tourists. That was near impossible.

We walked out of the shop wearing shorts with 'Jamaica' splayed across our bums and T-shirts with the words 'one love'.

Fast forward a couple days. Our luggage finally arrived so we decided to get all dolled up and head out to Dancehall Night our friend Christopher Martin, a new reggae artist, was waiting for us backstage.

We stayed back there to watch the show which included performances by D'Angel, Stacious, Kago, Chino, Voicemail, Konshens, Demarco, Assassin, I-Octain, Aidonia, Spice and Elephant Man. During the show, we ended up hanging out with Assassin's cousin Maury and his dancer Kenny.

It got really interesting when Mavado got on stage performing his hits 'House Cleaning', 'I'm So Special' and his duet with Stacious 'Come Into My Room'.

The crowd went even crazier when Bounty Killer got on stage.

By then it was after 5 a.m.. Jenia and I were pretty tired but we decided we had to wait for Vybz Kartel otherwise Dancehall Night would be a waste. Vybz Kartel took the stage in an orange jumpsuit, handcuffed with a bandana on his head, no doubt acknowledging his release from jail only days earlier.

The crowd ran towards the stage like this man was God in all the concerts I've gone to, I have never seen anything like it. He performed his massive hit 'Clarks' and so many others including 'Love Dem' and 'Without My Own'.

We left around 6.30 a.m. the sky was blue and the sun had risen in Assassin's tour bus.

Fast forward to Friday night for International Night One. Jenia and I headed to the show with friends from New Jersey, excited to see Chris Brown perform. And of course he didn't disappoint.

He took to the stage with countless hits including 'Run It', 'Deuces', 'Crawl' and 'Transform Ya', and also did a couple dancehall songs he showed the predominantly Jamaican crowd that he could keep up with their dances.

The girls were screaming from the minute he stepped on stage until he left. I was never a Chris Brown fan, but I definitely am now.

Also performing Friday night were Jah Cure, my absolute favourite, Gyptian, my second favourite, Etana, Queen Ifrica and Tony Rebel.

My only criticism of the night was that there were too many breaks and some were very long breaks. Dancehall Night was seamless, with never more than a three-minute gap between artists.

This time we left earlier we were back at the hotel by 5 a.m.

Saturday we dedicated to lying around the pool where we met up with a bunch of people from New York and New Jersey. We also ended up meeting Pepa from the 80s hip-hop group Salt-n-Pepa, who ended up hanging out with us all day.

International Night Two was the best night of the festival for me. The headliner for the night was Usher whose performance was good.

He sang all his hits including 'You Remind Me', 'Yeah', 'There Goes My Baby', 'You Got It Bad' and 'OMG'.

But the best part of the night was when Mavado came onstage and performed with Usher. Elephant Man then came onstage to show Usher a few dances.

However the crowd went wild a few minutes later when Chris Brown came on and did the dancehall dances much better than Usher.

A high point of the night for Jenia and I was when we bumped into Usain Bolt who happened to be friends with Christopher. We ended up having a conversation with him and snapped a few pics.

Also performing that night were Christopher Martin, D-Major, Richie Loops, Shaggy, Gramps Morgan, Tarrus Riley and Beenie Man.

Tarrus followed Usher for what was my favourite performance of the festival.

Now I will say I am a bit biased because I love all of this man's music. Songs included 'Good Girl Gone Bad', 'Contagious', 'Far Away', 'She's Royal', 'Trapsetter' and 'Cut It Off'.

Tarrus has an amazing stage presence and so much energy. He had the crowd transfixed until he got off stage.

Beenie Man got on stage at 6 a.m. and performed all the crowd favourites including 'King of the Dancehall', 'Dude', 'Gaza Mi Seh', 'Bubble Gyal' and 'Bookshelf'.

But the best part of his show was when his estranged wife, fellow artist D'Angel, got onstage and they performed together.

By the time we left, the sun was shining and Sunday had arrived.

Sumfest 2010 had concluded next year can't come fast enough.