Carnival King and Queen Contest this Saturday
You don’t have to wait until the eleventh of September to enjoy the color and sparkle of the carnival. On Saturday September fourth, the Carnival King and Queen Competition gets underway at the National Stadium in Belize City. While costume judging will start at five in the evening, the main competition does not get started until seven and is expected to run until midnight due to an increase in the number of entries. Rene Villanueva Sr., the chairman of the Belize Carnival Association says they are hoping the weather will hold up for what promises to be a fantastic show.
Rene Villanueva, Chairman, Belize Carnival Association
“This year the King and Queen Carnival Competition will be grand, grand. There is a lot of enthusiasm among the bands and everything is set. Everybody is getting their tents together and from early Saturday morning we will be out at the National Stadium making sure that everything is in place and everybody is facilitated in setting up their tents.
We have a record number of entries for this year’s King and Queen Competition. Last year we did something about seventeen; we had about seventeen entries last year for the King and Queen Competition. This year we have about twenty-two. So it is going to be a fantastic show.
Lots of lights. We are bringing in again Mr. Sanchez Riverol and his group from Chetumal who have been providing the lights for the King and Queen pageants for the last four years and experienced in doing so. So you can readily appreciate the glamour and the glitter.
I have heard people saying that C-Jamm has withdrawn from the competition but C-Jamm has never been registered for the King and Queen Competition. They never registered for the King and Queen Competition. The association knew months ago that C-Jamm would not be sending up any King and Queen this year. So it is not something that we didn’t know about. But despite the fact that C-Jamm is not participating we still have a record number of entries.
The bands, Jackie, work very hard. There is no way the Belize Carnival Association, there is no way the prize money that we give can ever compensate for the hard work that goes into building these costumes. There is no way, so hats off to the bands that take part in carnival. We are proud of them.”
The judges are appointed by an advisory committee to the steering committee headed by Director of Culture Beverly Smith Lopez. Tickets for the 1999 Carnival King and Queen Competition are available at Record Shacks I and II, Venus Photos and Records and at Love F.M. Adults are ten dollars, children are five and reserve is fifteen. The September Celebrations kick off tonight with the Queen of the Bay Pageant at the City Centre. Eight young women are competing for the title. On a celebrations scheduling note, although the official Independence Day Celebrations will be held in Belmopan this year, the Chairman of the Celebrations Committee Glenn Tillett tells News Five that the float judging and street jump-up will be held in Belize City as usual. However, the committee will decide next week if they are going to hold the uniform parade in Belize City or Belmopan.
