Thursday 25th December, 2014 (St. Kitts & Nevis) – Changes to the format and criteria for judging the road march competition have been announced by the National Carnival Committee.
In a statement issued this morning, Chairman of the National Carnival Committee, Mr. Sylvester Anthony explained that these changes have been approved and are supported by an overwhelming majority of j’ouvert and grand parade troupes, as well as three of the four major bands who participate in the annual competition.
“Everyone agrees” says the NCC Chairman, “that the current system is deficient and needs to be changed”. “The troupes are complaining that the focus on winning the road march competition under the current format forces the bands to play a single song throughout most of the j’ouvert jump up and the grand parade, and prevents them from enjoying the parades for which they have spent large sums of money, including substantial payments to the bands themselves”, said the NCC Chairman.
The Chairman went on to explain that the bands themselves have been complaining for years about various deficiencies with the current format However, he lamented, getting unanimity among the band leaders on a new format has proven to be impossible.
“This”, he concluded, “is the best we can do at this time: three votes in favour of change, and one against. I certainly would have preferred to have all four votes in favour of the new format”.
The statement by the NCC Chair concluded with an observation that soca monarch artistes and calypsonians are also complaining about the difficulties being faced by them in the event they wished to enter the road march competition.
“These are matters which will occupy the attention of the National Carnival Committee as we continue to work with all stakeholders to come up with a comprehensive system for the road march competition in time for Sugar Mas 44” the Chairman concluded.
Beginning this Sugar Mas 43, the road march competition will no longer be judged simply by judges recording how many times a particular song is being played by a particular band when that band passes the previously announced judging points.
Under the newly announced format, judging of the road march will take place at two locations along the j’ouvert and grand parade routes. Judging on J’ouvert morning will take place between the hours of 4 a.m. to 9 a.m. Each band will be judged only once at each point with the ability to amass a total of 1200 points.
These prescribed locations are as follows:
Judging Point #1 – Between Social Security Building and the National
Museum Building
Judging Point #2 – Upper part of Fort Street between Central Street
and Cayon Street
At these two judging points the road march competitors are expected to present their competition pieces which will be judged according to the following criteria:
Judging Criteria
Road March Competition
|
Lyrics
|
Originality
|
10
|
20
|
|
Creativity
|
10
|
|
Tonal Quality
|
Melody
|
15
|
50
|
|
Arrangement
|
15
|
|
Clarity
|
10
|
|
Diction
|
10
|
|
J’ouvert
|
Upper Fort Street
|
100 points
|
200 points
|
|
Bay Road
|
100 points
|
NB: The Maximum points that can be scored on J’ouvert are 200 points per judge.
|
New
Year’s Day Parade
|
Upper Fort Street
|
100 points
|
200 points
|
|
Bay Road
|
100 points
|
NB: The Maximum points that can be scored on The New Year’s Day Parade are 200 points per judge.
NB: The Maximum points that can be scored overall are 400 points per judge.
Join the fun and revelry, Sugar Mas 43!
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