Soca lovers, get ready to jump and wave.

The Island's first soca fete tonight at Snorkel Park.

Performers include top soca performers Traffik, Iwer George, Buffy, Shal Marshal and Super Jigga TC.

Buffy a.k.a. Chrystal Bellille has always loved music.

"I started writing calypso music when I was about eight because I always liked writing and composition in school," she said. "I didn't write it for me to sing because I was a shy person. I wrote songs for my classmates."

Despite her shyness she pursued her music and a university degree and eventually released a song, 'Buffy & Thick'.

"It was a motivational song for thick or fat women and it told them that they can wear whatever they want and still look sexy.

"And when I came out with that song everyone loved the song and my voice so I thought, 'I guess music it is!'

"Before then I was studying business management I was a book-aholic."

Ms Bellille so impressed Traffik with her performance in the Soca Monarch competition that they invited her to tour with them.

"This is crazy because it is very rare for a new artist to get into the Soca Monarch competition. I'm telling you, you have to pay your dues for two or three years before they put you on the international stage and I got the opportunity after only four months," she said.

"I didn't make it to the finals, because there was a problem with my music and then I was a little inexperienced, but it was so exciting to be on the stage with all those big top artistes.

"I got to perform at all the biggest fetes for the carnival and my song 'Man Wining on Anything' was the biggest song of the carnival [in Trinidad] this year. The song is big in New York, it is big in Toronto, it is just huge.

"All the promoters keep calling and I am trying to go back home, but I can't, because there are special requests for me most of the time."

Super Jigga TC started out as a DJ in his native Trinidad and went on to host that island's number one television show, 'Soca Star'.

"My show is like a reality show, which is a cross between 'Making the Band' like P Diddy and 'American Idol'," he explained.

"The show sees about 400 youngsters aged between 15 to 25 coming out to audition for 'Soca Star'."

Two new soca artists, Fire Ball and Umi Marcano, launched very successful careers through being on the show, he said.

Now that he is performing, Super Jigga TC says he doesn't want to do the show for much more than another two years because of the time involved and the gruelling schedule.

"We do what we call the circuit," he said, explaining that it begins in April, soon after the end of carnival.

"I just came from Miami and Buffy was in New York. From here we go to Toronto for Caribana.

"From Caribana we go to Virginia Beach [for its] carnival, from there we go back to New York for Labour Day and then we do a couple of small island carnivals like St. Lucia and Antigua and then we hit the Miami Carnival, after Miami we do Key West, then Bahamas and then we're home in November and then we stay in Trinidad until carnival.

"I've been doing that same thing for nine years, the only difference is that before, I used to DJ the shows."

This is Super Jigga TC's first visit to Bermuda. His opinion? "It is pretty nice, because everyone is listening to me and my stories."

As to whether he had ever performed at the Notting Hill Carnival, he said that he had and was planning on attending this year.

The show begins at 10 p.m. Fast ferries will be available all night and the Dockyard train will shuttle drivers to and from the field.

Tickets, $50 in advance, are available from CellularONE, iStore and Snorkel Park Beach.

For more information visit www.snorkelparkebeach.com, e-mail info@snorkelparkbeach.com or ring 441-234-6989.