Carnival Groups Make Final Preparations for King and Queen Competition

It’s only four more days before the Carnival King and Queen Competition takes place and carnival enthusiasts have their hopes in their favourite mas bands to either defend their title or pull off an upset. Today News Five’s Marion Ali stopped in at two of the camps that were putting on the finishing touches to their king and queen costumes and also wrapping up the other costumes for their members for the Carnival Road March set for September ninth. Here’s a sneak peek at what you can expect for the Carnival events in this week’s edition of Kolcha Tuesday.

Marion Ali, Reporting

Defending Carnival King and Queen Champions, Mother Nature’s Creation is expected to set the stage ablaze on Saturday night. They will be defending their title in those two categories. Band owner, Carla Flowers says they’ll be ready for this year’s competition.

Carla Flowers

Carla Flowers, Owner, Mother Nature’s Creation Carnival Band

“We are doing the finishing touch, well, on the King costume now. The Queen already finished, so the Queen, the King – we’re doing the finishing touch on.”

Marion Ali

“Wheels, wings, and…”

Carla Flowers

“Sequence, colors, and everything.”

Mother Nature’s Creation did not allow us a sneak peek at their costumes at their St. Thomas Street camp today, neither for King and Queen or for next weekend’s road march. But Flowers shared that for the first time they have constructed costumes that can be disassembled and reassembled.

Carla Flowers

“This is our first year we are building up, taking down costumes. Putting up and taking down costume. We cannot carry the costume out there whole. We need to set it up now. So this is our first year going to do that -setting up a costume.”

Marion Ali

“How difficult is that knowing that you might go there and you might see some rain in terms of the setting up and you don’t know if something snapped in place or this or some of the colors might run on the other colors? Well, the glue might not hold.”

Carla Flowers

“Yes, everything will hold.”

But if Mother Nature wants to capture the big win for the annual Carnival Road March, they will have to get past the defending champs in that department, Soca Moca. And from the looks of things, when we stopped by at their camp on Pelican Street today, they were well prepared. Roy Briceno is one of the designers.

Roy Briceno

Roy Briceno, Designer, Soca Moca Carnival Band

“We’re coming as paranormal every year coming very strong, more innovative. We’re under the patronage theme of “A Nation in Distress, From the Ashes We Rise,” which is a manifestation of what our nation faces today, you know, the rise of gang war. Right now we’re definitely working on the King and Queen, which is for this Saturday, of course, so probably say we’re – with the King and Queen costume we’re probably about 75%, so we’re just on there were finishing touches and so forth.”

There will be ten carnival bands competing for the bragging rights. For the road march which is always a spectacle, the bands will showcase their creativity, innovation, and might in terms of the number of revelers. Soca Moca has a blend of all of the above.

Roy Briceno

“Colors, you can look are black, white, gold, definite a fusion of colors, if I may say.”

Marion Ali

“And how many members and age range?”

Roy Briceno

“A total of 198, so far. It’s a huge band, definitely one of the dominant bands here in the city. I can say definite or age ranges from 18 and above. We don’t have a cap range at the top, so one big group – that is one big group. Yes, so it’s three different sections.”

Mother Nature’s Creation also wants that coveted title of Carnival Road March champions, and they’ve also invested heavily on creativity and colour, but size tops that list this year, particularly for their king and queen costumes.

Carla Flowers

“We get a engineer to come in and sit with us and show you how to build it, take it up, put it up and take it down.”

Marion Ali

“It’s that huge?”

Carla Flowers

“Yes. Our costume will be at least eight feet high.”

Marion Ali

“That’s the king and the queen?”

Carla Flowers

“The queen and the king. The theme is Belizean Beauty. We are doing the rainforest, some beauties of the rainforest. We have 160 members, strong. The colors – we’re using all different colors. That’s what we are using this year.”

The King and Queen competition starts at five Saturday evening at the Belize Civic Centre. Marion Ali for News Five.