Northside carnival groups hold mas camps
You’d better pick your spot soon because the Carnival Road March is almost here. And every year this energetic spectacle gets better and better. The preparations are also taking longer and longer. News Five was roving around the northside of the city last night to find out if the groups are ready for the big day.
Except for the boom box playing carnival songs to put people and bands in the festive mood, things were relatively quiet inside the six carnival mas camps on the northside of the city. The band members were busy at work sewing and putting on the finishing touches to their costumes and accessories. There will be a total of fourteen bands competing in the 1999 Road March: five senior bands and nine junior bands. One junior band hoping to pick up a win is Democracia Green Adventures.
Sr. Marilyn Panton, Band Leader, Democracia Green Adventures
“The children of Democracia are really developing and our village is growing and everybody wants to get into school and to be ready for the new millenium. And we feel that we have a message for all the children out there.”
The band will be portraying the theme: Children of the New Millenium, Developing Skills for Tomorrow, Stay in School. While organizers have a message to send, the children say they are just in it for the fun.
Lincoln Reyes, Fifteen Years Old
“Because I just like having fun, when you are in carnival all you are thinking about is just having fun.”
Q: “How have you been preparing yourself for Saturday’s road march?”
Lincoln Reyes
“Practicing and practicing.”
Tony Cervantes, Costume Designer
“Well I really ask what they really want. After they sit and tell me what they want then we sit down and draw many sketches and we go over them and see what we like and what we don’t like. We add from one to another until we come to one that we really like and that’s how we come to what we really like.”
But it takes money to make winning costumes. While some of the bigger bands managed to get large corporate sponsors, others like the Lovely Lane Junior Carnival Band will not be competing this year.
Barbara Myvette, Band Leader, Lovely Lane Junior Band
“Because sponsorship is very poor this year and this year we cannot compete due to sponsorship. If we don’t get the good sponsorship we can’t compete.”
Rene Villanueva Sr., Chairman. Belize Carnival Association
“Well Lovely Lane needs some kind of attention and I think next year the association will need to look into these bands that need attention and try to work closer with them particularly where the juniors are concerned.”
One of the bands worth watching will be Sixth Street Masqueraders. It is their fourth year in carnival. Their leader is Cherry Stuart.
Q: “What should we expect from the Masqueraders on Saturday?”
Cherry Stuart, Band Leader, Sixth Street Masqueraders
“Our best performance. We are out to do our best and to have fun and have a good time. I think the love of taking something from nothing and bringing it out into a beautiful creation. And the day when carnival to see the joy on those children’s faces. They get so excited I have to tell them calm down.”
One very competitive band is Gem. This senior group has been in carnival for four years. Its one hundred and thirty-five members will be portraying the origins of the Maya. According to Gem’s committee, we should expect only the best.
Jose Ketz, Gem Belize
“We won two out of three of categories last year for craftsmanship and best design. This year we are doing the same. We are not sure what will be the level of our achievement this year but we have put a lot of hard work into it. We have taken time to do the head pieces better, put on more feathers, put on more glue, put on more glitters, put on more sequins.”
Expect an equally more impressive showing from Cultural Heritage.
This band, two hundred members strong, captured first places in the King and Queen Competition on Saturday. They intend to take home the top prize this weekend.
Jacqueline Burgess, Publicity Director, Cultural Heritage
“Because, as you can see, it is very colorful; it is very lively and you can say it is very moveable because the costumes are very, very light. You are wearing a headpiece of course it’s very light; there is nothing in the way.”
There will be some new bands this year like the Rotaract Junior Band. Kim Vasquez, the band’s leader says their participation is more than a competition. The band is giving forty-five children a chance to jump up in carnival.
Kim Vasquez, Band Leader, Rotaract Junior Band
“As you know Rotaract Junior Masqueraders is a new band. It was formed by the Rotaract Club of Belize City and it was done very spontaneously. We came up with the idea in June and started to work about then. It was very last minute but still we were able to work very hard and we are almost finished. This is just the finishing touches we are doing here tonight.”
You have to have at least thirty members in a band in order to compete in carnival. The Carnival March on Saturday begins at the Yarborough Green and ends at the National Stadium. Mas camps will be held on the southside of Belize City tonight.
