Carnival bands appeal to sponsors
The September Celebrations are just two months away, but while hardly anyone in the general public has started thinking about what to wear for the parades and jump-ups, those in the carnival bands are already hard at work making costumes. The problem is that the year after the 200th Anniversary of the Battle of St. George’s Caye, the business community is not being quite so generous as last year. Arreini Palacio reports.
The heat of the summer months may have only just begun but carnival bands are already getting ready to “Toro Toro” and “Charge” in the streets of Belize on September eleventh this year. But before the fun, there are the preparations. One problem plaguing all the bands this year is the lack of sponsorship. According to GEM’s public relations officer, no one is stepping up to help defray the costs of this year’s carnival.
Kathy Christie, Public Relations Officer, GEM
“We have a core group of sponsors who have been with us for some time and this year we wanted to grow the band a bit and bring on board some more sponsors, but sponsors are just not coming forward. We would like to think that carnival is a really good investment, that you are getting value for money. We are seeing a whole bunch of young people express their creativity and apparently the message is not getting through to the businesses in Belize because they are not coming forward to sponsor us.”
One sponsor that has come forward for GEM band is Heineken and according to Kay Menzies, Executive Director of the beer’s distributors Karl H. Menzies, there are many benefits to sponsoring a carnival band.
Kay Menzies, Executive Dir., Karl H. Menzies
“From Heineken’s point of view it is exactly what one wants to visualize when one is selling beer; people having fun and it is good clean fun for us. So it is a good image that it projects for us.”
Besides a good image in the community, for five thousand dollars, GEM sponsors get a banner and radio exposure before and during the carnival parade. But this price may be a little high for some businesses and GEM who won two of the three competitions last year, believes that the cash flow problem is shared by the other two senior bands. If things don’t improve Christie believes the size of the carnival will be affected, but not the spirit.
Kathy Christie
“We have fixed the cost of the costume at 140 dollars now but it has affected the size of the band in that as carnival is growing in Belize we want to increase the size of the band. That has been put on hold because we cannot get the sponsorship.
As you can see there is a lot of creativity. We have a lot of fun down here. So we would say to anyone, come on down and see what the costumes are like and you might end up joining or making some of the costumes with us.”
Anyone wishing to see the costumes in person or make a donation is asked to visit GEM’s Mass Camp at 5752 Lizarraga Avenue. Arreini Palacio for News Five.
