Soca lovers stood out in heavy downpours for hours jumping and waving to Shurwayne Winchester and the Traffik Band as they performed hit after hit last week. Hott 107.5 presented the Open De Gate Cup Match Jam on Wednesday night which turned into a "wet fete".

Despite starting late and the obvious setback the weather the show went on with hundreds of soca fans enjoying every minute of it.

When I got to Snorkel Park, Craig "Bubbles" Darrell was playing soca and reggae to warm up the crowd for the show. I was disappointed when the best soca DJ in my opinion, D'General didn't play.

Host for the night, Ninja Cutty got the crowd into the music by screaming over the microphone. People blew their whistles and waved their rags the whole time while dancing under the shelter.

Closer to the time of the actual show, C'Daynger and Roache performed a few of their original songs with Harper Digital's Herbalist Supreme on the turntables.

Homegrown was supposed to perform but with the weather delays, their set was cancelled. However, once Mr. Winchester got on stage, nothing else mattered.

The Tobago-born artist opened with his hit song from 2006 carnival 'Don't Stop', a song with a chutney beat. He did a little Indian-inspired dancing as well.

Along with the musicians in the band, Mr. Winchester also had two singers helping him with background vocals and singing lead during certain songs.

The great thing about the show was just as Shurwayne promised, he performed various genres of music including reggae, dancehall, hip-hop and soca from other artists. The songs included 'Move' by Ludacris, Bone Crusher's 'Never Scared' and Wayne Wonder's 'No Letting Go', just to name a few.

He also did soca classics like 'Tiny Winie' and 'Soca In My Blood'.

During the set when he did his original music, Shurwayne was amazing. He is very into crowd participation and called out directions to the audience. "Wave your hands from left to right like so" and "Turn around, run to the left, One, two, three go" had the crowd obeying his every word.

Mr. Winchester told the crowd to separate in two and, on the count of three, run into each other. It was madness.

At one point, he jumped off the stage and threw dozens of water bottles into the audience. He told them not to open the bottles until he said to, but of course Bermudians don't like to listen, and water was thrown.

For his new song, 'Open De Gate', Shurwayne had the gates moved so that everyone could rush the stage. A few desperate girls tried to run up before the command was given, but were quickly ushered back by security.

Once the gate was moved, the energy level skyrocketed with everyone waving rags, blowing whistles and jumping up and down in the rain.

Mr. Winchester performed all of his hit songs including 'Can't Wait', 'Look De Band Coming', 'Dead or Alive', 'Don't Stop', 'Open De Gate' and many more.

As a self-proclaimed soca freak, I can honestly say this was probably the best soca show I have been to. It was highly entertaining and it was great to see Bermudians out partying hard in the pouring rain well, except for those who stood in Hammerheads.

The show ended around 2.30 a.m. with the crowd wanting more and Shurwayne vowing to return again next year. The name Shurwayne will be remembered for a long time in Bermuda, just as he predicted.