2015 Hollywood Carnival Highlights
Hollywood Carnival 2015: EPIC Mas Brings “Concrete Jungle” to Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood Boulevard is usually associated with movie premieres, tourists and stars on the sidewalk. On Saturday, June 27, 2015, it looked very different. Feathers, Soca, flags and masqueraders took over the boulevard as Hollywood Carnival returned to Los Angeles, with EPIC Mas stepping onto the road as a full Carnival band for the first time.
The 2015 parade ran more than three miles from Vermont Avenue to Highland Avenue, feeding directly into the Carnival Culture Village. Among the bands on the road was EPIC Mas, hosted by Machel Montano, presenting a five-section theme called “Concrete Jungle.” Just one year earlier, EPIC had entered Hollywood Carnival as an approximately 80-person section within Extacy Mas. In 2015, the concept expanded into a full band of roughly 300 masqueraders.
Julianspromos returned to Los Angeles with Julian C. Hackett and Sheniele “Vivaa” Dodson covering the weekend. The surviving archive stretches from the road with EPIC Mas to the Hollywood Carnival concert and backstage interviews, then into Shine Hollywood at OHM Nightclub on Sunday, June 28, giving Julianspromos a much fuller record of Hollywood Carnival Weekend than a single highlights reel could show.
EPIC Mas Goes From a Section to a Full Band
The transformation between 2014 and 2015 happened quickly.
EPIC Mas had been conceptualized for Hollywood Carnival 2014 as a section within Extacy Mas, bringing roughly 80 masqueraders onto Hollywood Boulevard. Machel Montano, Anya Ayoung-Chee, Caesar’s Army and other Caribbean creatives were among the people helping give the new concept visibility.
The response was strong enough that EPIC returned in 2015 as its own band.
Machel’s involvement went beyond simply showing up to perform. He had become an ambassador for Hollywood Carnival and EPIC Mas, using the event as another opportunity to put Caribbean Carnival culture in front of a West Coast audience.
And after winning both Power Soca Monarch and Road March with “Like Ah Boss” earlier that year, Machel arrived in Hollywood carrying about as much Carnival momentum as anyone could have.
Welcome to the “Concrete Jungle”
EPIC Mas called its 2015 presentation “Concrete Jungle,” a fitting theme for putting Caribbean mas onto one of the most famous city streets in America.
Five sections made up the band:
BULL — EPIC x cANYAval, designed by Anya Ayoung-Chee
DOVE — Caesar’s Army, designed by Jangelique
LION — islandME & KDK, designed by Humzee Mohammed
PHOENIX — STOOSH, designed by Sandra Hordatt
BUTTERFLY — Fantasy Carnival, designed by Marie Collette
The approach also reflected something EPIC was deliberately experimenting with at the time: costumes that could live beyond Carnival Monday or parade day. Early 2015 promotion emphasized designs that masqueraders could potentially reuse as beachwear, clubwear or fashion pieces rather than putting everything away once the road ended.
On Hollywood Boulevard, though, they were doing exactly what they were designed to do.
Play mas.
Machel, Alison Hinds and Soca on the Boulevard
The EPIC Mas road experience had plenty of music behind the costumes.
The Julianspromos footage features Machel Montano, Alison Hinds, Angela Hunte, Lead Pipe & Saddis and Lyrikal, with music on the road from Dr Jay and Back To Basics.
That was a serious collection of 2015 Soca.
Lead Pipe & Saddis were still riding the international success of “Ah Feeling.”
Lyrikal’s “Cloud 9” was part of the 2015 Soca Gold compilation.
And Angela Hunte had teamed with Machel on “Party Done,” another record featured prominently that season.
Hollywood Boulevard essentially became a moving Soca stage.
The Carnival Keeps Going at the Concert
Once the road ended, the music did not.
Hollywood Carnival’s parade flowed into the Carnival Culture Village, where the celebrations continued with live entertainment. The official 2015 festival material described the village as the next stop after the parade, keeping food, culture and performances going into the evening.
Julianspromos captured that side of the day as well.
Watch: Hollywood Carnival Concert
The surviving concert coverage includes Machel Montano, Nadia Batson, Lyrikal and more, extending the archive beyond what happened on the road.
Machel’s stage performance also became a wider showcase for Caribbean music that weekend. Contemporary coverage records him bringing out Nadia Batson, Lyrikal, Alison Hinds and Angela Hunte, with Angela joining him for “Party Done.”
Vivaa Goes Backstage
Some of the best moments from a festival never happen on the main stage.
Julianspromos also went backstage, where Sheniele “Vivaa” Dodson spoke with artists and members of the Caribbean music community moving through Hollywood Carnival.
The surviving backstage footage features interviews with Nadia Batson, Lyrikal, David Millien of Millbeatz Entertainment, Lova Boy, Cloud 9 Sound out of Belize and Moe.
That gives the 2015 archive a different feel from a standard Carnival recap.
Viewers can watch the costumes and performances, then move backstage and hear directly from some of the people participating in the weekend.
Coverage: Julian C. Hackett and Sheniele “Vivaa” Dodson
Host / Interviews: Sheniele “Vivaa” Dodson
Shot and edited by: Julian C. Hackett
One More Day: Shine Hollywood
Apparently one full day of mas and Soca was not enough.
On Sunday, June 28, Julianspromos followed the weekend into Shine Hollywood at OHM Nightclub on Hollywood Boulevard.
OHM sat right in the Hollywood & Highland complex, putting the party in the middle of the same Hollywood district the Carnival had taken over the previous day.
Shine gave the weekend a completely different setting. Saturday had been costumes, sunshine, trucks and thousands of people moving along Hollywood Boulevard.
Sunday brought the energy indoors for one more fete before everyone had to admit the weekend was actually ending.
The surviving Julianspromos archive dates Hollywood Carnival to June 27 and Shine Hollywood to June 28, preserving the two events back-to-back.
Julianspromos Returns to Hollywood
The 2015 trip also represented another step in Julianspromos’ growing relationship with Hollywood Carnival.
Julianspromos had already covered the event in 2014, when EPIC Mas was still an individual section. By 2015, the coverage had expanded alongside the band itself.
There was the road.
There were the costumes.
There was the Carnival concert.
There were backstage interviews.
And there was Shine Hollywood the following day.
Julian C. Hackett and Sheniele “Vivaa” Dodson were not simply dropping into Los Angeles for one performance. They were documenting an entire Carnival weekend as it unfolded.
That relationship continued again in 2016, when Julianspromos returned to Hollywood Carnival and EPIC Mas with another year of road coverage. The surviving Julianspromos history confirms that by then EPIC’s growth from 80 masqueraders in 2014 to approximately 300 in 2015 had become part of the band’s own story.
Looking Back
Hollywood Carnival 2015 caught EPIC Mas at exactly the moment it became something bigger.
A year earlier, it was a section.
Now Concrete Jungle was filling Hollywood Boulevard with five costume sections and hundreds of masqueraders behind Machel Montano.
The road brought Machel, Alison Hinds, Angela Hunte, Lead Pipe & Saddis and Lyrikal.
The concert kept the music going.
Vivaa went backstage with Nadia Batson, Lyrikal and others.
Then everybody found enough energy for one more fete at Shine Hollywood on Sunday.
For Julianspromos, those surviving videos now fit together as one story.
A Caribbean Carnival weekend taking over Hollywood, from the first chip down the boulevard to the final Sunday fete.
