Senior Mas Camps ready for carnival

Carnival 2010 is days away. Organizers say they expect a large turnout of bands this year. On Wednesday night, our carnival team caught up with two-well known senior bands as they sweated the night away with bacchanal fever.  The mas camps are included in the first part of the judging process which culminates on September eleventh.  What they did not have in numbers, they had in hype and energy. Safiyyah Mohammed reports from the streets that lead to the road march.

Safiyyah Mohammed, Reporting

Wednesday night marked the opening night of the senior Mas Camp nights. The air was filled with energy as we arrived at our first stop, Jam Jam Mas Camp.

There wasn’t a high percentage of the one hundred and twenty-five revellers who signed up for carnival day in attendance for the Mas Camp but the spirits remained high. We took a moment away from the high energy dance moves to talk to one of Jam Jam’s organizer’s April Wagner.

Safiyyah Mohammed

“Tell me about Jam Jam’s theme for this year’s carnival.”

April Wagner, Organizer, Jam Jam

“Our theme this year is legends and myths. We have a Queen of Angels, which I will be playing and you know with good, the angel is good and along with good there is always evil. We have a Queen of Demon and we also have King Arthur.”

Safiyyah Mohammed

“How do the revellers feel? What is the overall feel going into carnival day?”

April Wagner

“They are very energetic. They are ready. Its like carnival is already here. As you can see they are having a blast. We’re putting the competition aside, like I said our number one priority is fun. Of course we want come in first right.”

After jamming with Jam Jam, we headed over to St Thomas Street to get wild with Mother Natures Carnival Band.

The turn out of the revellers tripled the last camp as did the energy level. The feeling of unity among the dancers tied right into the theme for Mother Nature. We spoke to one of the organizers and he told us more about it.

Leroy Green, Organizer Mother Nature

“Mother Nature’s tour this year is called The Victory and the theme for it is victory over colonialism. This year we did the story about Belize gaining independence but to keep the fantasy part, our kings and queens are fantasy people. We have Queen Disturbia. She’s this shroud of darkness over the Belizean people for years and years under colonialism. I will be playing King Fobo, representing the evil soul of the conquerors who put our people into this colonialism. And our final queen is Queen Belicia. She represents the soul of the Belizean people, which was never killed, but came back and fought until we were declared independent.”

Safiyyah Mohammed

“What’s the feeling going into carnival day?”

Leroy Green

“Right behind you. That’s what makes Mother Nature, Mother Nature; energy, excitement, anticipation, enthusiasm. You name it, we’ve got it.”

Safiyyah Mohammed

“Well we saw Jam Jam and now we’re here at Mother Nature’s Mas Camp. That’s the end of Mas camp senior night one. Tomorrow we’ll see what the other guys have to offer. But tonight was definitely fun. Bye.”