Meet the Delegates of the National Queen of the Bay Pageant 2020
The traditional Queen of the Bay Pageant, held annually in August as part of the national celebrations, is on and running for its seventy-fifth year. Having reached that milestone, organizers say the show must go on and have planned a virtual event for this coming Saturday at five-thirty in the evening. The format of the show has been adapted to fit the current pandemic environment, but five young ladies have signed up to compete and you can all catch the excitement on this station. Here is News Five’s Duane Moody with a report on how the oldest local pageant has transformed.
Duane Moody, Reporting
For the first time in the history of the Queen of the Bay pageant—or any local pageant for that matter—Belize is having a virtual pageant. You heard right – the seventy-fifth national Queen of the Bay will be put off via a virtual event to be aired on Channel Five. National coordinator and former title holder, Sherima Usher-Guity says that the committee decided not to break the tradition.
Sherima Usher-Guity, National Coordinator, Queen of the Bay Committee
“The unique challenge that the pandemic presented has allowed us as a committee to come up with innovative ideas this year and we decided to do the pageant virtual, meaning no audience. We are just going to be having the three judges, the host and of course, our delegates.”
Also due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only five delegates have been handpicked by district coordinators to compete for the coveted crown. Meet the delegates:
[Introduction of the Delegates…]
Given the restrictions, the format of the pageant has been tweaked, but the delegates will nevertheless be competing in the traditional five segments: introduction, talent which will be pre-recorded, the evening gown/curtsy, the march and the dreaded question and answer.
Sherima Usher-Guity
Sherima Usher-Guity
“You are going to see the introduction segment. They are not going to be doing an opening number because we don’t want any mingling, so each contestant will be doing a separate piece before they introduce themselves. So we have the introduction then the talent segment. The evening gown is the only segment that the reigning queen will be on the stage with them and at that point in time that they do the curtsy that everybody looks forward to the reigning queen will be six feet apart from that delegate. And when that delegate curtsies to the judges, we will maintain that distance as well. It is followed by the march that the young ladies normally do together on the stage; this year, they are going to be doing that one by one, followed by question and answer and then we are going to be having the announcement of the seventy-fifth Queen of the Bay.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
