Tribewanted: Vorovoro

Vorovoro’s growing reputation for Meke earned them an invite to the annual Festival of the North this August, and we duly arrived, on mass, to show the crowd our stuff!

The festival lasts the best part of a week, and Vorovoro had already been represented by a handful of the tribe and team on the opening day of Saturday the 23rd August when Ben Katz (Tribewanted sustainability manager) took a group over to Labasa to march in the parade with the people of the H.O.P.E organisation (Help Our Polluted Environment).

Tuesday evening we took three boats over and were all dressed in our finest, ready to impress the crowd. We met an American chap in the bar, Aaron, who mentioned he was here to go to some Tribewanted thingy tomorrow, and after introducing ourselves as Tribewanted, he tagged along to see the madness he’d bought in to! Everybody walked into the Labasa football stadium together and had a look at the fair ground and stalls as we walked through to the main stage. The stage was in the middle of the football pitch meaning half of the grounds tiered seating was there to be filled, and was already busy with people enjoying the warm-up entertainment of some young hip-hop dancers on stage. We checked in and then took some seats in the stands to watch and wait until we were required to get on stage and entertain the crowds.

The first part of the official program had eight young ladies welcomed onto stage one at a time, in a Miss Fiji Sugar-Plantation-sponsored pageant, so they were introduced and then had a little cheesy speach each for the crowd before being seated either side of the guest of honour, the managing director of the sugar plantation. The music that they blared over the loud speakers for the entrances was hilarious, the crazy frog dance tune from years ago which knocked around the charts and became better known as a mobile phone ring-tone than anything else! Myself, Moya and Dan took to entertaining the crowds from up in the stands by dancing in time to the tune each time another contestant came out onto stage… by the end the whole bank behind us were doing it, heheh! We backed number five, as her dress was made off “all natural things found on our beautiful shores”, and she looked bored to tears during the inspirational speach from the guest of honour, while the other contestants maintained their plastic smiles! The speaker lost half of the people in the stands (they left after 20 mins or so!) and put the rest to sleep. Seriously. Terrible. Once the pain was over, the entertainment began in earnest.

We were told we’d be seventh on the bill, and so a few of us went off into the fair to try some of the dangerous looking fairground rides. We all jumped on the swings, which spin around and send the swings out on an angle. They cost $1 and as we sat in the seats we realised just how dodgy their construction was! The big engine with its baggy belt was started up in the middle of the ride, spewing fumes onto us and we were under way. One of the attendants on the ride was wearing a hard hat, making us a little nervous! We had a blast and were reaching out and holding hands with those sat next to us and spinning the chairs around, great fun! The guys that run the ride thought is was great… gulp! I can imagine doing this in England and getting ejected from the grounds promptly!

After this we went over to the big ferris wheel, but after buying a ticket we were plucked from the queue by Ben as we were being called to the stage to prepare… that ride would have to wait!

We got dressed in our traditional grass and leaf decorations and the boys (team Fiji) were ready to sing us into the history books as the first ever white group to take part in this event. Ben Keene marched us onto stage with his usual gusto and we seated to perform the Vuki Malua in front of the now huge crowd, in the stands and along the roped off VIP area to the sides of the stage. This looked like maybe 2-3 times more people than we performed for at All Saints School a week ago, and that was estimated at around one thousand people. The build up to the Vuki Malua is really cool, the boys sing a customised Vorovoro intro before building up to the dance, and normally I use this to reflect and focus. This time however, there was an Indian cameraman, zooming our faces up onto a HUGE screen next to the stage, and so Tribewanted stoked the fire by each of us pulling a face or winking at the crowds sat behind us, much to their amusement! When we started and got to the first turn, the crowd were going nuts, screaming and cheering, it was such a buzz. When we’d finshed this the girls stepped up from the rear of the stage to join us and we performed the 6 meke’s together in two lines along the stage. The usual disruption tactics were deployed and we were soon wearing talc, flower necklaces and chewing nasty sweets! We had to be cut short unfortunately, and didn’t get a chance to do the complete run through from 1-6, possibly the best bit, but the crowds loved it and we all had a great time performing for them.

After this a few went off to go on the afore mentioned ferris wheel (which sounded pretty scary by most accounts!), while some of us hung around to watch another village perform a spear meke, which was fantastic! I waited to see this as I may not ever have the chance again! I’m pretty glad we don’t try to learn this meke on Vorovoro, I could see a few casualties for sure… lol!

We gathered the tribe together and were back in the Grand Eastern hotel ready for our boats back at around 23:30. The ride back was great, calm seas, pitch black star-filled skies and lots of phosphorescence in the spray of the boat… memerising stuff, which I could only wish I could share with those I love from home…

Once again Tribewanted and Vorovoro had made a great impact and left another indelible mark on Fiji… our network of friends continues to grow.

Vinaka Vaka Levu for reading.
Ratu Paulu.

P.S. Apologies for not posting any pics… I didn’t take my camera, so will try and get some pics from the tribe and have them posted!