Marching band competition scheduled for Saturday
They are a highlight of every parade to hit the streets of Belize but this weekend, marching bands from all over the country will take centre stage in a special competition organised by the Governor General. This morning, our crew got a special preview of the talented musicians in action.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
This Saturday, the Marion Jones Sports Complex will host the first annual Belize Band Fest with fourteen marching bands lining up to strut their stuff.
According to coordinator Brain Mossiah, ten bands will compete in two categories.
Brian Mossiah, Coord., Marching Band Competition
?The first part will be a street parade, a military parade. And what the judges will be looking for there is the formation, the rhythm, and of course the presentation by their auxiliary, the baton twirlers and flag bearers and what have you, so that is what the judges will be looking for.?
Activities will begin with a road march leading up to the judges? table at the Marion Jones.
Brian Mossiah,
?We will be assembling at Gwen Lizarraga High from eight o?clock tomorrow morning. We move off from there, go around the roundabout with the hand holding the leaf, come out at Central American Boulevard, turn right contrary to traffic on Vernon Street, left into Youth for the Future Drive, over the BelChina Bridge, on into Douglas Jones Street, and we turn left into Freetown Road and take a right here at the flag monument and end up at the Marion Jones Stadium for about eleven, eleven-thirty. We take a lunch break and a short ceremony before we get into the actual competition at one o?clock.?
One highlight of the event is the presence of Banda International Bethel, the pride of Honduras and reigning Central American champions. Today the band paid a courtesy call on a number of the primary schools in the city.
Brain Mossiah
?The reason why we decided to invite this band is because we feel that this band has the right kind of glow that we want to present to the Belizean youth, an example that we want to see the Belizeans follow.?
The marching band competition is an initiative by Governor General Sir Colville Young to develop an awareness and appreciation for music.
Brian Mossiah
?The governor general as you know over the years has tried over and over again to give instruments to small schools and what have you, trying to encourage them to develop their own marching band and to get into music. And I think he decided then to join forces with Love FM realising that he needs a driving force behind this idea to do something like this. Luckily enough, the management of Love FM decided that they wanted to do this and so here we are today.?
Gates of the Marion Jones Sport complex will open on Saturday morning with the competition scheduled to run from one to four-thirty in the afternoon. Admission is three dollars per person.
