Six Flags Soca Fusion 2012: Fabolous at Hurricane Harbor - Caribbean Summer Concert Series DAY 1

On Saturday, August 11, 2012, Caribbean music and New York Hip-Hop came together inside Six Flags Hurricane Harbor in Jackson, New Jersey for the opening day of the Caribbean Summer Concert Series.

Presented by TriniFly Promotions, the Saturday program was built around a Soca and urban music fusion, combining Caribbean sounds with R&B and Hip-Hop in the middle of the water park. Brooklyn rapper Fabolous was the headline attraction, with Entaraj, VMS and Young Devyn also among the artists featured during the day.

Julianspromos was at Hurricane Harbor documenting the event, with Sheniele “Vivaa” Dodson hosting the on-camera coverage and Julian C. Hackett shooting and editing the footage.

Although the original Julianspromos videos from the concert are no longer available, photographs from Hurricane Harbor still capture the artists, interviews and atmosphere surrounding the event.

Fabolous was promoted for the August 11, 2012 opening day of the Caribbean Summer Concert Series at Six Flags Hurricane Harbor.

Soca Meets Hip-Hop at Hurricane Harbor

By 2012, Caribbean concerts had become a familiar part of the summer calendar at Six Flags Great Adventure.

The August weekend expanded that idea across two days, beginning Saturday at Hurricane Harbor with a program designed around Soca, Hip-Hop and urban crossover sounds.

Instead of a traditional concert setting, the entertainment unfolded inside the water park, allowing visitors to spend the day enjoying the rides and pools while live performances became part of the Hurricane Harbor experience.

The combination made the event feel somewhere between a Caribbean summer fete, a family outing and an outdoor music festival.

Fabolous Headlines the Saturday Concert

The biggest name on Saturday’s program was Fabolous.

By 2012, the Brooklyn rapper had already spent more than a decade as one of New York Hip-Hop’s most recognizable voices, with hits including “Can’t Deny It,” “Breathe” and “Throw It in the Bag.”

His appearance gave the Caribbean Summer Concert Series a strong New York Hip-Hop connection and fit naturally into the day’s Fusion concept.

The promotional flyer kept the message simple: Fabolous, Hurricane Harbor and August 11, 2012.

For a Caribbean concert series that had traditionally leaned heavily into Soca, Reggae and Dancehall, Saturday opened the door to a broader mix of sounds.

Entaraj at Six Flags

Entaraj brought an R&B element to the Fusion lineup.

The group performed during the Hurricane Harbor concert and also sat down with Vivaa for Julianspromos.

The original feature combined an artist interview with performance highlights, allowing viewers to see Entaraj both onstage and away from the performance area.

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Entaraj during the August 11, 2012 Six Flags Fusion concert at Hurricane Harbor.

With Soca, Hip-Hop and contemporary R&B sharing the same afternoon, the group fit comfortably into a program that was intentionally moving between musical styles.

Young Devyn Returns to Six Flags

Young Devyn was also part of the day’s performances.

After taking the stage, she joined Vivaa for a post-performance interview, giving Julianspromos another moment with an artist who had already become an important part of its early history.

In February 2011, Young Devyn had been the first artist ever interviewed by Julianspromos. At the time, she was still an up-and-coming nine-year-old performer.

By the summer of 2012, she was appearing at larger Caribbean events and sharing programs with established national artists.

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Young Devyn with Sheniele “Vivaa” Dodson following her performance at Six Flags Hurricane Harbor.

Her return to Six Flags showed how quickly things were changing for the young performer during those early years.

VMS, Entaraj and Young Devyn

VMS, Entaraj and Young Devyn represented the younger and crossover side of the August 11 program.

Their presence alongside Fabolous helped give the event its Fusion identity, moving between R&B, Hip-Hop and Caribbean-influenced sounds rather than staying inside a single genre.

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That mix reflected the direction Caribbean entertainment in New York and New Jersey was already taking at the time. Soca and Dancehall remained central, but younger audiences were just as comfortable moving between those sounds and American R&B and Hip-Hop.

At Hurricane Harbor, all of it could exist in the same afternoon.

Vivaa at Hurricane Harbor

Sheniele “Vivaa” Dodson hosted Julianspromos’ on-camera coverage throughout the event.

Her interviews moved beyond simply showing performances from a distance, giving viewers a chance to hear directly from artists around the concert.

Among the moments captured were Vivaa’s interview with Entaraj and her post-stage conversation with Young Devyn.

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Behind the camera, Julian C. Hackett filmed the event and edited the Julianspromos coverage.

Together, the interviews and performance footage gave viewers a closer look at the personalities surrounding the concert as well as what was happening onstage.

A Summer Day at Hurricane Harbor

The location was a huge part of the experience.

Hurricane Harbor meant that the concert unfolded around a full summer day at a water park.

Guests could move between the attractions, pools and live entertainment instead of arriving only for a nighttime performance.

For families and groups traveling from New York, New Jersey and surrounding Caribbean communities, the Caribbean Summer Concert Series offered a different kind of outing: music, food, rides and a day away from the city all wrapped into one event.

It was an unusual backdrop for Fabolous.

It was an unusual backdrop for Soca.

And that was exactly what made the Saturday Fusion concept work.

Photo Gallery: Six Flags Soca Fusion 2012

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The photographs from Hurricane Harbor capture the atmosphere around the concert: artists gathering between performances, Vivaa working around the event, interview moments and scenes from the surrounding park.

Several of the photographs also show the performers away from the stage, giving the gallery a more relaxed, behind-the-scenes feel than traditional concert photography.

For images carrying an original photographer watermark or credit, keep that credit visible on the photograph.

The Original Julianspromos Videos

Julianspromos originally released video coverage from the concert shortly after the event.

Among the features were:

Entaraj Interview & Performance Highlights @ Six Flags Fusion Concert 2012

and

Young Devyn Post Stage Interview & Performance Highlights @ Six Flags Fusion Concert 2012

Those original videos are no longer available, leaving the photographs as the strongest visual record of Julianspromos’ August 11 coverage.

Sunday Brings Reggae and Dancehall

The Caribbean Summer Concert Series continued the following afternoon with another major lineup.

On Sunday, August 12, the music shifted heavily toward Reggae and Dancehall, with Mavado, Barrington Levy and I-Octane among the featured artists.

The concert moved from Saturday’s Hurricane Harbor setting to the Northern Star Arena at Six Flags Great Adventure.

Saturday had blended Caribbean music with Hip-Hop and R&B around the water park. Sunday brought the sound of Jamaica into the arena.

Over one weekend, visitors could experience two very different sides of Caribbean popular music without leaving Six Flags.

Continue to the Sunday concert:
https://julianspromos.com/archives/mavado-six-flags-caribbean-concert-2012

A Caribbean Summer Tradition

By the summer of 2012, the Caribbean Summer Concert Series had developed into a recurring destination for Caribbean audiences throughout the Northeast.

Six Flags gave promoters something few traditional concert venues could offer: an entire day built around entertainment.

Families could arrive early, children could enjoy the attractions, and adults could meet friends from across the region before the live performances became the center of the afternoon.

The August 2012 weekend showed just how wide that audience had become.

Soca could sit beside Hip-Hop. R&B artists could share the program with young Caribbean performers. And one day later, the musical direction could shift toward Reggae and Dancehall.

From the Julianspromos Archives

On August 11, 2012, Six Flags Hurricane Harbor became the setting for a summer crossover concert bringing together Caribbean music, R&B and Hip-Hop.

Fabolous headlined the Saturday Fusion program, with Entaraj, VMS and Young Devyn among the artists featured during the day.

Sheniele “Vivaa” Dodson hosted Julianspromos’ on-camera coverage, while Julian C. Hackett shot and edited the footage.

The original videos may no longer be available, but the photographs still capture the personalities and atmosphere surrounding a memorable summer afternoon at Hurricane Harbor — a day when Caribbean music, New York Hip-Hop and the Six Flags water park experience all met in the same place.