Northside carnival bands hold mass camps
If you live in a neighborhood which is supporting a carnival band, by this time you probably know them better than you’d like. But the rest of us, who will be watching Friday’s road march in person or right here on Channel Five, are anxious to get behind the scenes of the big event. Last night I toured part of the city in search of the carnival beat.
A number of streets on the northside of Belize City turned into one jamming session Monday night, as the steering committee for the Belize Carnival Association, made its official visit to five of the seven northside carnival bands participating in this year’s event.
Brads Gladden, Vice Chairman, Belize Carnival Association
“Let me tell you something, the spirit is up, the kids are ready and everybody is ready to roll and nobody can’t wait for Friday to come and get on the road. Everybody is sweating; it’s time for carnival to get down.”
Making their eighth appearance in Carnival ’98 is Victoria Street Junior Carnival Band. The group, which is thirty-five member strong, has been preparing and making costumes from a month and a half ago.
Arlette Avilez, Band Leader, Victoria St. Junior Carnival Band
“Well, this year, the Victoria Street Junior Band will be going under the sea. We will be portraying all the fishes, most of the fishes that are in the Belizean sea, well in the Caribbean, most of them.”
But hard work does not come cheap. The entire production is costing the band between three and four thousand dollars. Money, that Avilez says was hard to find.
Arlette Avilez
“The children them just come naturally; they are like magnets. So it is not that hard getting the children. It’s the sponsorship and getting the costumes ready. It’s really hard and sponsorship was really, really, really hard this year. We really felt it, cause we had to go into our pockets and finish up our costumes and we are still not finish.”
However, despite the hurdles, the young participants are just happy to be taking part.
Q: “Andre, this is the second year that you will be taking part in this band, why did you decide to stick with the group?”
Andre Dawson, 10 Years Old
“Because they are good and they are exciting.”
Q: “And how are you feeling about this year’s carnival?”
Andre Dawson
“Good, very good!”
Q: “Paulette, this will be the first time that you will be taking part in the carnival, why did you decide to join?”
Paulette Elijio, 9 Years Old
“Cause it is good; it is good.”
Q: “What do you like about carnival?”
Paulette Elijio
“To dance.”
Brads Gladden, who is the vice-chairman of the Belize Carnival Association, says they have been impressed with the mass camps.
Brads Gladden
“Well, we are looking for creativity; we are looking for originality and of course, we are looking for the hype of carnival. We want everybody to come on out and wave something. The spirit of carnival that is what we are looking for.”
Unlike the crowd in the Victoria Street camp, the atmosphere at Stella Maris was far more quiet, as the school’s carnival group, Wildazha was busy cutting and putting together their costumes.
Olivia Rhaburn, Band Leader, Wildazha
“In ’96, when we had planned to enter the carnival we had the carnival spirit and we wanted a name, so we took a letter from each teachers’ name and we came up with this name. And so we decided to call it that. Wildazha, because that’s what we were, kind of new and we wanted to do something real different.”
That first year, Wildazha captured the top prize in the junior category. This year, the forty-member band is optimistic of a big win with their theme: “From Slavery to Bravery”.
Olivia Rhaburn
“From Slavery to Bravery, we are trying to depict when we had slavery in Belize and then when the slave master started mingling with slaves. And that will be the first group in bondage and the second group well when the mix began and the third group is when slavery was abolish.”
Q: “Crystallee, this is the first time that you will be taking part in the carnival, why did you decide to join Wildazha?”
Cyrstallee Allen, 10 Years Old
“Because a lot of people want me to join it and I am very good dancer.”
Q: “What will your costume look like?”
Cyrstallee Allen
“Beautiful.”
No matter just how young or old they are, the residents of Lovely Lane were definitely in the dancing mood by the time the association’s caravan rolled into their neighborhood.
Barbara Myvette, Band Leader, Lovely Lane Junior Carnival Band
“We ain’t portraying nothing, cause carnival is not about portraying; carnival is all about having fun.”
Q: “So exactly what should we expect from this group?”
Barbara Myvette
“Well, we will be having a lot of fun, and party will be a big part of it. That’s the main thing.”
The children, on the other hand, had their own reason as to why they will be jumping up on Friday, September eleventh.
Shaeree Baptist, 11 Years Old
“My mother sent me to go and join the carnival cause I like to dance and my mommy sent me to come in and join the carnival.”
Eden Jones, 12 Years Old
“Fi mek yuh have fun and mek yuh win, cause when you win, you go away. And I like it cause I enjoy myself more.”
The Lovely Lane Junior Carnival Band has forty-two members and has been in Carnival since 1994.
Our next stop took us onto Baymen Avenue, where we visited with members of Cultural Heritage. Although the young men and women were busy putting together their costumes, some could not resist the sounds of Xtatic booming from the association’s T-Gee’s box outside.
David Matus, Costume Designer, Cultural Heritage
“Well, the costumes for this year is based on the “Legacy” and they are very colorful and very attractive. And all we know, we have a lot of work to accomplish yet, but we hope to get them done by Friday.”
Q: “When did you all start work on the costumes?”
David Matus
“We started working about three, four months ago. For the past month or so, we have been working for late hours.”
Gladden said there seems to be a far more enthusiastic mood about this year’s celebration and promises that Carnival ’98 will have more than just your local bands taking part.
Q: “Will carnival be bigger this year?”
Brads Gladden
“Oh by far it will be bigger. We are having some international bands that will be coming in: we have Chicago coming in, L.A. coming in, New York suppose to be here and as we have heard tonight, there are three buses from L.A. that will be coming to Belize for carnival day. So it’s going to be a huge celebration and we are urging all people to come on out.”
When we caught up with members of the C-Jamm Mass Band at the corner of Queen Street and Barracks Road, they were hard at work. Traditionally an all senior group, for the first time C-Jamm has added a children’s section that wasted no time in capturing their first big prize in the Carnival King and Queen Competition last Saturday. This year C-Jamm will depict “Hurricane 1931: From Celebration to Devastation, From Destruction to Renewal”.
Stuart Leslie, P.R., C-Jamm Carnival Band
“You know the Carnival Committee ask us to focus on a large extent, on the Bicentennial, the two hundredth anniversary of the Battle of St. George’s Caye and so because we know other groups would be focusing on that battle, we decided to look at one major factor of all the Tenths over the years starting from September tenth, 1931 and so we will be focusing on the 1931 hurricane. We are going from euphoria, from people celebrating in the streets up to 1981 Belize’s independence.”
Leslie says the production is costing them close to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Funds, that William Usher, the group’s band leader says that by the end of the day, would have been well spent.
Q: “How big is this group?”
William Usher, Band Leader, C-Jamm Carnival Band
“We are about two hundred strong with floor marchers and additional support group.”
Q: “You expect to win big?”
William Usher
“Of course!”
The association says Carnival ’98 will get underway from eleven o’clock sharp on Friday. It will start off from the Yarborough Green, then travel down Caesar Ridge Road into Central American Boulevard, over the Belcan Bridge, the onto Princess Margaret Drive, to the National Stadium where a final presentation and judging will take place. The public is urged to start lining the route from as early as ten, Friday morning as the carnival promises to be on schedule.
On tomorrow’s newscast we’ll catch up with some more of the carnival bands. On Friday, Channel Five’s live coverage, hosted by William Neal, will start at ten o’clock in the morning.
