THE VALLEY Anguilla, March 22nd 2011 - The chairman ‘Mr. Vanier Harrigan’ promises this year to be greater than ever with some new things coming to our carnival. We hope to have a sellout carnival this year because of the exposure we got last year from Tempo Network, Caribvision, Hamlet Media Group, and other media in and outside of Anguilla.
Carnival will start this year Friday, July, 29th, 2011 and end Sunday, August, 7th. August 1st will be the Caribbean Beach Party.
The chairman says, the unique thing about Anguilla carnival is the combination of boat race in the day and carnival events at night. This makes Anguilla a perfect carnival vacation for our visitors, with lots of sea food, BBQ.
The committee plan to launch carnival June 3rd with a spectacular show, with the revealing of our Carnival banner. The spirit of carnival will be coming to each village in Anguilla, “Mask Camp” to get the feel of carnival though out the Island, and it will be done by the Klassique Academy of Dance group.
The committees are working hard on their events to make this year a rememberable one. You can look forward to the Band Klass and the Leeward Island Calypso show, which are world class events. Last year the J’ouvert went around the Valley twice, but this year the chairman hopes to take the J’ouvert around the Sandy Ground pond so that the people on the beach can jump in the jam and see what our J’ouvert is like.
Mr. Harrigan says he would like to see the carnival troupes work together as part of the band’s fan club, this way they can do fund raisers for costumes together. A ‘chairman’s award’, will be something new going to someone in the public who brings the spirit of carnival out in some form. The chairman said he has already identified someone from the previous year to receive this first award, and will be watching someone for next year.
The committee is grateful to the Government of Anguilla for working with them on developing an overall design plan for our cultural center knows as ‘Land Some Bowl’ or ‘Carnival Village’. The Carnival Village had sustained some extensive damage during the last hurricane. Mr. Harrigan said he is working hard on getting a new steel roof that would cover the entire stage as well as creating a shelter area within the Village in case of rain. This would save the committee thousands of dollars every year on renting stage roofs.
Mr. Harrigan said he has meetings almost daily with sponsors and other people on ways of making this year’s carnival the greatest ever. He said he has a long list of people to see within the next few months and hopes to meet with community youngsters to make them feel part of our country’s developments as well. That’s why the committee will be bringing carnival to the villages.
Harrigan said he wants Anguillians to understand that this is our carnival, our country, and he need the support and voluntary help from as much people as possible to make it great. Carnival should not be about making money but creating long term opportunities for the Island, and displaying our freedom.
Harrigan says he also hope to have the carnival website up and fully functioning very soon. He said he want business people to know the value in the carnival website. This is where people overseas will go to look for places to stay, to eat, a car to drive, a boat to have a tour, where to shop and so many other things. He has set up a Marketing and Sponsorship committee to help get their business out to the visitors coming for carnival. During the carnival season Anguilla has as much visitors as any other month of the year, and Harrigan hope to attract even more by promoting carnival with in the Caribbean, North America and Canada.
Mr. Harrigan said the word has travel around the world about our Caribbean Beach Party, which has grown to be a Caribbean biggest beach event. He said last year he meet people from as far as Germany and know there are coming back with friends. He said when you look back at last year’s events, it makes you proud. Harrigan says he wants to see more Anguilla flags in this carnival, because when you look back at the videos you’re not sure what country it is.
Also he said he would like to see someone selling Anguilla T-Shirts, hats and music CD’s of the local artist / bands at the beach and village, that people can buy something of Anguilla to take back home.
Vanier Harrigan says as your carnival chairman, he wants us all to work together and make it one of the greatest carnivals in the region. He said we already have the best J’overt, Beach Party, Calypso shows, a unique Band Klass like no other and complimented with a full fun day of Boat Race. Harrigan would like to welcome all guess coming for carnival. He also welcomes anyone to comment or request info on his face book “Chairman of Anguilla Summer Festival”.
Anguilla News