Jump Street Posse & Belizean Jewels are Carnival’s Kings and Queens

Saturday was chock full of activities. News Five’s Duane Moody also headed to the Marion Jones Sporting Complex for the King and Queen Competition of the 2017 carnival season.  This year, sixteen bands were to compete, but for unforeseen reasons, two junior bands, namely Irahunu Mas Band from Seine Bight Village in the south and Caribbean Treasure Band in the city removed themselves from the competition. Caribbean Treasure will, however, participate in the road march, but will not be competing. But down to eight juniors and six seniors, the battle continued.

Duane Moody, Reporting

The competition of the giant costumes got underway as early as five p.m. on Saturday, with two of the senior bands not making it on to grounds of the Marion Jones Sporting Complex before the deadline, preventing them from being prejudged. But at about eight p.m., following the impressive costume-themed presentations, the real battle began. The playing of the junior and senior Kings and Queens of the bacchanal is a spectacle that saw hundreds of carnival fans gather on the bleachers. A total of two hundred points from eight judges were up for grabs.

Patrick Thompson

Patrick Thompson, Vice President, Carnival Association

“We have the prejudging and that was held at five where the judges were looking for the sturdiness of the costume, the illustration…how the reveler, who is portraying the costume, can explain to the judges what his or her costume is all about; and as well as the mobility of the costume. We are here now at the final competition which is the stage presentations whereby we are looking at the overall impact, the use of colors, the blending of colors and as well the mobility and durability of the costume.”

First up were the junior queens and kings. Sunshine Masqueraders: Queen Indra and King Vala, and their theme: Gems of the Earth

…Mahogany Masqueraders: Queen Preshana, the Queen of Hope and Love and King Chatoyer, the Warrior of Freedom.

….Collet Royal Revellers, “Drinks Galore: creating memorable drinks moments” with Queen Pomona, the Goddess of Fruit Trees and Orchards and King Sir Barry Bowen, the Beverage King of Belize.

…Black Pearl’s Tou Mu, the Chinese Goddess of the North Star and Liza the African God of the Sun.

….Pickstock Mas Band’s 2017 theme was Illusion of Colors. King Saffron and Queen Calissa came to win the hearts of the judges.

….Trenchtown Masqueraders’ King Abbadon and Queen Hather were inspired by a recent misfortune by the bandleader, Patricia Flowers.

But it was Jump Street Posse’s King and Queen that took the title and the grand prize for the junior division of the King and Queen Competition. Band Leader, Marina Welcome says she’s overwhelmed because it is the fourth consecutive win for the band.

Marina Welcome

Marina Welcome, Band Leader, Jump Street Posse

“This is four-peat; they couldn’t handle that. Remember Hurricane Hattie? They couldn’t handle that either. But there is a lot of biasness going on Duane, but I don’t care because we did it. We worked hard, no sponsorship…just a lot of hard work. And trust me, you see these costumes here, I did them all by myself.”

Duane Moody

“Talk to us about the theme this year.”

Marina Welcome

“Our theme this year is carnival mix-up, anything goes. Jaws; that’s his first time, but we drill him up to this morning and we couldn’t go wrong. My queen is four-peat; they can’t handle that.”

It was even tougher competition in the senior category. First up was Belizean united with King Nathaniel and Queen Aura of Belizean United.

…..Mother Nature’s Creation Conch Soup, a Belizean Delicacy saw Queen Crustasea and King Ukuru take center stage for the judges.

….Fantasy Carnival Band’s Queen Ixchel and King Ballum for their nature-themed giant costumes.

…defending champs, Titan’s Mas Band returned with Queen Kim Burgess as Reflection of Venice and Andrew Middleton as the “Devils Come Out to Play.”

Soca Moca, the 2016 Road March Winners presented Queen Leela giving homage to the late brukdown queen and King Gongji, a red Rooster, for the Chinese New Year.

But it was Belizean Jewels’ Cancer-themed giants that stole the show and swept the senior titles with Queen Avanti the Cure and King Oris, the Cancer Warrior. Playing the queen costume was Kadejah Tun.

Kadejah Tun

Kadejah Tun, Belizean Jewels

“This year we weren’t even going to participate, but earlier this year; in January and May, we lost two family members to cancer and the day of the Cancer Walk, my mom was like we had to figure out whether we will come into carnival or not. We all sat down, because there are only a small group of us who come up with the idea and something tells us let’s do cancer cause cancer has zero boundaries for anybody; it can hit home anytime. So we did something that is general that everybody can relate to. And our theme for this year is “Cancer Warriors Dancing for the Cure.” We are not only dancing fro just dancing, we are creating awareness and we believe that cancer shouldn’t be killing anybody because the treatment is as good as the cure.”

Duane Moody for News Five.

In the junior category, Mahogany Masqueraders and Black Pearl Bands won second and third respectively for both the king and queen competition. In the case of senior king, Titans Mas Band and Soca Moca got second and third in that order, while Soca Moca and Mother Nature’s Creation won second and third for senior queen.