Mas Band protests carnival judging results

And it wasn’t just the crime situation that the Erotic Mas Band is concerned about as we reported in the first segment of our newscast. Following in the footsteps of the Jam Jam Mas Band, this morning, Erotic fired off a four-page letter to President of the Belize Carnival Association protesting the results of the 2008 road march and seeking clarification of several issues including costuming and the judging of the kings and queens.

David Matus, Costume Designer, Erotic Mas Band
“A lot of biased decisions were made on carnival day that we want answers from the association as to how they went about screening these judges before they could actually judge a big event such as the Belize carnival, how could these costumes that we are now seeing in today’s carnival be anywhere competing outside of Belize? How can these costumes even represent Belize, they are not costumes, they are part of costumes that we are calling costumes and we are making them win.”

Valerie Woods
“It will help us know to what level of energy one needs to really invest because not just Erotic Mas Band, Kendra, all bands are investing upwards of ten, fifteen, twenty thousand and the prize is only six or seven thousand dollars, so you are not doing it for the money, but you are asking people to give up a lot of hours out of their regular job, away from their families for a good three, four, five months of the year and so at least we think the decent thing, responsible thing, respectful thing to do is just be clear with us what exactly you are looking for so that we know next year whether we compete or we don’t and if we don’t it means that it’s because we are not prepared to put in all that energy for something we are not clear on in terms of rules and regulations.”

Today Pauline Bradley from the senior winners, Southside Masqueraders, told News Five that there are certain criteria that the judges look for and they fit it. She says they proved themselves and came out on top and she doesn’t understand why everyone is behaving this way.

President of the Carnival Association, Patrick Thompson, said he could not comment on the controversy right now as the judiciary committee needs to look at the protests grounds to see if they have any merit and from there a decision will be made. But until then, their decision stands.