Band leaders to organise 2002 carnival
By all accounts, one of the most popular events of the September celebrations is the carnival parade through the streets of Belize City. But this year, the annual march looked like it might have hit a dead end. Today, the die-hards intent on keeping the carnival spirit alive burst onto the public stage with enthusiasm and vigour to announce their plans for this year. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods was on hand.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
This year carnival may not be as big as previous years, but the event promises to be just as spectacular. With new leadership at the helm, organisers are trying to revive the carnival spirit and attract much needed sponsorship.
Leroy Green, Chairperson, Carnival Pullalli
“A lot of the businesses said that they were not doing that well to contribute to carnival. So most of the bands had a hard time getting funds. Also some of the carnival spirit was lost due to the quarrels among bands because to the competition. And if you notice, all of the bands, the members had been minimised in numbers because the individual members had to pay for costumes. And there was a rippling effect with the economy where the business places couldn’t sponsor and a lot of the other members could not pay for their own costumes.”
Amid speculations that there would be no carnival this year, bandleaders met to discuss their options. They have decided to take on the challenge of managing the activity themselves. Today, the committee, Carnival Pullalli, introduced themselves to the media and unveiled this year’s carnival theme.
Leroy Green
“Carnival Then – Now – Tomorrow.”
Carnival Pullalli has a total of fifteen members. Chairperson Leroy Green says since the group first met three weeks ago, the bandleaders have become more committed to the road march and have established a good working relationship.
Leroy Green
“We’ve been able to bury differences. And at the meetings it’s generally a spirit of laughter and everybody listening to everybody’s suggestion and so on. And by working together like that this year where you not only tolerate, but appreciate in taking into consideration suggestions from other bands. We hope that working in that way to bring back the spirit of unity and friendship and generating the fun that carnival is all about.”
With carnival only three months away, the committee has decided that carnival bands will not compete against each other this year.
Leroy Green
“One of the major reasons is time. You need time to prepare a competition, because you have to talk about getting prizes and so on. And we know that around this time of the year most of the major companies have already scheduled out their promotional funds, money that they set aside for that kind of thing. The other thing that was very, very important when we worked as a committee, was the fact that we felt that carnival had lost some of its appeal, some of its fun, because we focussed too much on the competitive aspect. And what we want to do is bring back what is known as carnival spirit.”
The Belize Tourism Board is one of the carnival’s major sponsors. B.T.B. will give each senior band, two thousand, five hundred dollars towards costumes while each junior band will receive one thousand, five hundred dollars. The committee says they are appealing to the business community to support the carnival groups.
Leroy Green
“Yes, we know that we are a bit late, but this carnival has evolved not only into a road march, but it has become-I believe and many people believe-that it is an integral part of our September celebrations tradition, and we’re striving very hard to keep it alive. All of us if you notice on the committee are working people and carnival takes a lot of time, way up into the night. We are willing to put that into it and we’re asking the business community to really come out and support us, don’t make carnival die.”
So far, three senior bands and three junior bands have registered to take part in carnival 2002. Jacqueline Woods reporting for News 5.
The bands participating in this year’s carnival procession include Southside Masqueraders, Legacy, Cultural Heritage, C-Jam Mas Band, Fort George Posse and Jump Street Posse. This year’s carnival parade is scheduled for September fourteenth.
