Mas Bands prepare for Carnival
With a little more than two days left to get in a gear for the big day, Carnival groups are racing against the clock to get ready. William Neal made the rounds Wednesday night as he went camping from Faber’s Road to King’s Park and a few places between.
William Neal, Reporting
Saturday?s Carnival will feature only seven groups, two seniors and five juniors, and has not generated the type of public interest that it once enjoyed. Carnival faithfuls argue that the movement reached its pinnacle in 2001 and has been on a steady decline ever since, citing poor judging, shrinking sponsorship, and the lack of leadership. But desperate times require desperate measures and have made strange bedfellows in the Belizean Carnival world.
Jose Ketz
?In the waning spirit of Carnival we realized that we didn?t want to actually die out. So members from Gem, Cultural Heritage and C-JAMM have come together form this newly group called ?Erotic??.
Jose Ketz is the PR and logistics coordinator of the newly formed senior Carnival consortium baptized Erotic. He says that the costume designs are the collaborative efforts of Raul Villanueva and David Matus, former rivals who designed for C-JAMM and Cultural Heritage.
Jose Ketz
?They decided that we?ll go with a red team this year for
no reason whatsoever. We are just looking for the most inexpensive way of producing a Carnival band with a budget really. Because the budget was so slim, they decided to do ?Red?.?
Erotic?s costumes were constructed for under twenty-five thousand dollars and will feature more than one hundred masqueraders with one purpose in mind.
Jose Ketz
?The main focus of our group really is to bring back the spirit. What we?ve said and what we wanted people to know is that because we are erotic and we?re made up of three bands, that doesn?t mean that Gem won?t come out next year or we won?t have C-JAMM or Cultural Heritage back. It just means for this year we?ve teamed up in the spirit of Carnival. This doesn?t mean that you might not see a resurgent of all the bands. We are hoping that it will spiral off again and everybody will come out back in the competitive mode that we?re used to.?
Anita Hamilton, formerly of CJAMM, feels compelled to lend her expertise as a seasoned masquerader.
Anita Hamilton
?Team work has a lot to do with it and I have to go back again to the love of it. Because no money is involved when it comes to the hours that this door stays open. But for sure it is for the love of it. You have to love it, then you put in the hours and then it just comes natural. Once you?re into Carnival, you will always love Carnival.?
William Neal
?Meanwhile, for the Southside Masqareders the reigning champions from last year it?s all about glitters, glue, paint and spirit.?
Pauline Bradley
?Well everybody done know we like bash and majority of us through here, we love the enjoyment of Carnival. Everything about Carnival we love. We are not in it for the money and oh we want to defend our title.?
Pauline Bradley, one of the designers and organizers for Southside Masqueraders? senior band, says that they got off to late start.
Pauline Bradley
?We decided very late so we didn?t have much time to plan what we were going to do. We just came up with an idea quick and fast.?
?This year we are depicting elements of life. The sun is the sun goddess, Ahkna and the moon goddess is Ah Kin.?
Glennis ?Pinky? Wright, the driving force behind the group, says she is doing her part to resuscitate the ailing tradition.
Glennis Wright
?My nieces, my kids; they love Carnival and we want to bring back the spirit of Carnival. The point is that they love it so we want to bring it back to life?
While the senior groups were full of life, the juniors that we visited were much more sedate. Perhaps this had to do with the fact that it was a school night and the trek around the city was more time consuming than we had anticipated. Of the five groups listed we managed to visit only three while they were still holding mass camp. First time entrants Hattieville Hotsteppers were busy adding their final touches. Sadie Martinez is the catalyst for this effort.
Sadie Martinez
?I decided it because all the different villages have already brought out a group and we are the only place that haven?t introduced a group so we decided to do that this year and call it the ?Hattieville Hotsteppers?. We came up with the different costumes of hot peppers because Hattieville has a lot of pepper trees. We have thirty kids in our band and teach them to dance soca. So with the practise that we did with them, we know that on Saturday eleventh they will do it?
And she is hoping to do it in a big way.
Sadie Martinez
?I noh di worry bout winning. We want to have fun especially since other bands are out there for twenty years more than we.?
And the junior group that has been there for twenty-one years is Jump Street Posse.
Marina Welcome
?We have sixty-five kids. Our theme this year is ?Paradise?. Form Paradise, you go to heaven and Jump Street Posse will take you to heaven come Saturday?
Under the direction of Marina Welcome they start working from early as March and intensify their efforts during the summer months while school?s out. Over the years Jump Street Posse has become the one to beat and last Saturday following the King and Queen Competition, threatened to withdraw from the road march.
Marina Welcome
?William we were, but like I said, Jump Street have love and when they think I?m going to quit, I just got started. So come Saturday, they are going to have problems because you see my kids are hype and they are going to stay hype. And we are going to have fun regardless. I mean we are going to have a lot of fun come Saturday.?
But come Saturday Mahogany Masqueraders will also be out with the King and Queen of the year.
Nadia Avila
?It has been a bit positive and yet a bit disturbing due to the fact that people cannot accept that Mahogany took both and we went by the requirements of the judging. But I am all hype and ready for Saturday regardless of what happened. Only a hurricane can stop it right now.?
Nadia Avila has been organizing a Carnival group for only three years. Come Saturday she expects to have fifty-five children playing mas under a special theme.
Nadia Avila
?This year I am doing Ethnicity; Ethnicity morning, noon and night meaning that in the morning you see the sun coming up and the colours yellow and orange with red coming up and then at noon you have the rainbow colours and in the night we have this beautiful princess costume for when the sun is going down. That?s what we are doing for 2004.?
Despite their different approaches, all the groups share two things in common?one, they had to fund raise in unconventional ways often digging deep in their own pockets and two, the reason why they are involved in this time and resource consuming phenomenon.
Nadia Avila
?You have to love it because regardless that some people say it?s a money thing. It?s not a money thing because my costumes are free. You really have to love it.?
Marina Welcome
?William it?s the kids. Every year I say I am going to quit but they find me and start to hype me up. So this is twenty-one years. It is a long time so I do it only for them.?
William Neal reporting for News Five.
William Neal and Co-host Ava Lovell will bring Channel 5 viewers live coverage of Carnival 2004 beginning at two on Saturday afternoon.
