Mas Camp ready for Saturdays Road March
Mas camps 2019 ended with a bang on Thursday night with a visit to three camps and another that won’t compete but is playing mas. From patriotic themes to the burst of colours in the costumes, the revellers are bringing their energy and excitement to the road march on Saturday. A total of ten bands will be competing in the spectacular bacchanal as it moves along the carnival route in the City from the junction of Faber’s Road to the Marion Jones Sporting Complex. Here is guest reporter Brent Lopez and cameraman Darell Moguel with Day Three of the mas camps.
Brent Lopez,
Day three, the final night of Mas Camps 2019, was the perfect climax to three days of pre-carnival revelry. Four senior bands, three competing and one non-competing, showed off their costumes. The fun filled night started on Basra Street, home of Black Pearl where there was an abundance of creativity and original designs. Co-designer, Aleister Alexander, gave use an insight on the concept behind their theme for this year.
Aleister Alexander, Co-Designer, Black Pearl
Aleister Alexande
“Well this year Black Pearl Senior Band, we decided to go with the theme, “Belize: DIFFERENT CULTURES, ONE PEOPLE”
Brent Lopez
“What inspired you guys to come up with that theme for this year?”
Aleister Alexander
“We just wanted to do something that dealt with togetherness and inclusion. So what better thing to do, than to do cultures. For the first section we have the Belize section because Belize is actually our country. So instead of displaying the costumes in red, white and blue on all costumes, we decided to have the colours in solidarity so we have full red, full white, full blue – the special being the combination of the three colours. The second section is the Chinese Laughing Buhda and the Chinese Dragon. The Chinese Buhda is red, gold and black. The Chinese Dragon is green, gold and black. We chose to put that behind the Belize section. The Belize section representing us Belizeans welcoming the Asian community into Belize. And the third section the Hindi section, we decide to do the Goddess Lakshmi. Lakshmi is the goddess of wealthy, prosperity and beauty. She embodies femininity. That is why we chose powder pink, fuchsia pink and dark pink. Black Pearl is gonna be ready, come rain, come shine, we gonna be ready.”
The excitement kept growing as we moved to our next stop at the Roger’s Stadium, where this year’s winner of the King & Queen Competition, Soca Moca presented a sneak peek of what to expect on Saturday. Bradley says they are ready.
Audrey Bradley, Band Leader, Soca Moca
“The “SECRET OF THE EGYPTIAN GOD AND GODDESS” cause there is a lot of secret in Egypt. This year we are depicting King Horus, well Queen Isis, Osiris and their son Horus, which is Isis and Osiris son. Isis and Osiris are brother and sister. So there’s the secret. They slept together one night and conceived and had a son, Horus who came out with one eye. The right for the sun and daytime and the left for night and the moon.”
Brent Lopez
“So come September 7th, Saturday, tell us a bit of what to expect from Soca Moca.”
Audrey Bradley
Audrey Bradley
“We have lot of things in store so just be at the judging point and we have excitement. All my revelers know I love them. I think I tell them I love them every day because first of all I need them more than they think they need me. All because the group they need their hundred and some of the groups are struggling. So for me to make my hundred I feel good. So I appreciate them. I love you guys and I just want you guys to come and give me all you got Saturday and let us end it with a bang.”
We crossed over to the north side of the City to St. Thomas Street, home of Mother Nature’s Creations. The hype was invigorating. Veteran Designer, Leroy Green, weaved patriotism into their theme centered on the Belize Guatemala dispute.
Leroy Green, Designer & PR, Mother Nature’s Creation
Leroy Green
“As usual Mother Nature has focused on history and culture through Carnival. “Our 2019’s presentation is named “OBEAH vs. SALVATION”. The theme for the entire story is actually good verses evil. It is a narrative tale with a fusion of Belizean history and folklore, expressed in the form of a superstition. It is also based on the fact that we announce our self as a Christian country, but yet just suppose against that Christianity is that deep belief of the superstitious thing called obeah, alright. Which is actually a legacy from our African ancestors – so, in a nut shell that’s what our story is about. For the colour for “King Guato”, we deliberately chose the colour green which represents the deep lust and envy Guatemala has for Belize. The aqua represents the fact that whenever they attack, they attack from the sea, the Sarstoon river, right. And the silver hints at the richness that Belize has. The silver also represents the fact that sometimes they try to hide evil in attractive packages. So all in all, that is what King Guato, a half spider, we deliberately did not make that costume attractively beautiful because evil is not beautiful, alright. “Queen Saliya”, we chose the bold colours of red and gold and if you notice Queen Saliya’s wheel and the beads on these; these are not beads that came like that. They were strung one by one unto those costumes alright. Tying wire across and then the beads went on one by one. Deliberately again to show how patriotism permeates Belizeans one by one by one until the entire Belize is flooded with patriotism. Mother Nature has always keeping it real. Keep it original with a high degree of creativity.”
Mas camp 2019 ended with a courtesy visit to the home of non-competing band, Fantasy Karnival Belize Mas Band. This band is an initiative from Belize Americans living in New York. Tisha Ottley says carnival is about fun.
Tisha Ottley
Tisha Ottley, Band Organizer, Fantasy Karnival Band
“The theme this year is “BORN TO WIN”. Great minds, positive thinking, wisdom and you’re magnificent. This year we chose to go as a non-competing band simply because it feels like we are relief ad we don’t have any stress. Meanwhile competing we don’t have any stress, any hatred, any jealousy. We are just here to portray our “born to Win” theme. We just want all these young ladies and guys to know, that when we step on the road this Saturday we will turn up the road because we are born to win. These are all walking trophies and every day we go through the people bullying one another and stereotype one another. So when we step we want everyone to fell that they are welcome and they are born to win.
We are ready. We are the last non-competing group, so look out for us. we “wa tun it up”
