BASSETERRE, St. Kitts: - National Carnival a.k.a. Sugar Mas is just around the corner and SKNVibes has learnt of some new developments for this year.
In speaking with the recently appointed Acting Chairman of Carnival, Sylvester Anthony, he said that Nisharma Rattan-Mack has been appointed as the new Pageants Chairperson.
He told SKNVibes that Mack will be responsible for the two pageants - National Carnival Queen and Miss Talented Teen.
“I am pleased to announce that Nisharma Rattan-Mack has been appointed to the Committee by the Minister; she has been assigned responsibility as Chairperson of the Pageants Committee, and has experience as she has served on that sub-committee in the past.
“I’m quite excited about her appointment as one of our strategies this year is to expand participation in Carnival. Nicole Gumbs (former Pageants Chair) is no longer living in St. Kitts, but has been working close with Nisharma to ensure the same high standard remains.”
The same committee members remain; Anthony said and that the only difference that Gumbs is not there.
He said that this year in order to ensure more participation from people in the parades they will introduce a new troupe.
He said there will be a troupe for persons who do not wish to wear the skimpy carnival costumes; they can wear a t-shirt of whatever they would like to promote and be a part of the parade.
He said the name ‘Kiddies Carnival’ will be no more and ‘Junior Carnival’ will be put in place to encourage participation from more of the younger persons.
“This year, we’re introducing a High School Float Competition as part of the Junior Carnival. We are also expecting the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College to be a part of the competition, so we are hoping the Junior Carnival this year will consist of primary schools and high schools.
“And knowing how the high schools like to compete against each other, we’ve introduced a float competition and hopefully our street activity will be much more improved than it has been in the past,” he said.
There will be no Female Bacchanal this year.
“It’s a show that has been very expensive, for which the crowd support has been negligible,” he said. “I think our female calypsonians are as good as the men as they have been making it in the final show and we believe it’s about time for us to let them take part in the Show and go through the tents and participate in the elimination rounds,” he said.
He said the female calypsonians were told last year that the Female Bacchanal would not be returning.
“In place of the female show we are hoping to have an ‘Extempo’ competition this year. We’ll try it out this year and see what it is like, perhaps have a St. Kitts verses Nevis competition, to see if we can create more excitement among calypso fans.”
He said that having a Band Clash is also one of the activities they are hoping to have and that depending on how registration for it goes … which is currently open… they will have it.
“The Band Clash is an event we planned last year that didn’t take place; we’re looking at it again this year and it will depend on registration. When we see the bands register we will be in a better position to know whether the event will take place,” Anthony said.
He said that for this year they are reaching out and meeting with the Community Festivals’ organizers to get them involved in Carnival this year.
“We want to encourage people to look out for Carnival; we want to maintain the same standard we had last year. Last year, the tents were excellent, large crowds showed up and we want to take the tents out to the communities.”
Anthony said that they are also in the process of finalizing the venue for this year and that most of the preliminaries will take place in Carnival Village.
