BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – IT will be 40 days of celebration for the 40th anniversary of National Carnival for St. Kitts and Nevis now known as Sugar Mas, and persons are already anticipating the excitement for this year, after a successful launch last night (Oct. 15).
A colourful line-up of Culturama, Carnival and Calypso winners, kings and queens, contestants, masquerades and dancers paraded through the streets of Basseterre on their way to Bank Street where the official launch of Sugar Mas 2011-2012 was held.
Minister responsible for Sugar Mas, Marcella Liburd in her address encouraged everyone to be a part of the celebration and to help to make it safe.
She encouraged the bands and artistes to produce clean music that can be played during the Children’s Carnival Parade, as last year she learned that some of the music was not suitable for the children.
Each year there is a Carnival Grand Marshall and this year the person named, Miyacinth Percival Huggins”, a.k.a. “Baby, who is a regular participant in carnival activities, will lead the Parade.
There were also performances by several calypsonians including Calypso Leo, King Pungwa and Queen Anastasia.
And because it is a national carnival event, winners of the Culturama celebrations were a part of the launch and were on parade. Former Culturama king, King Meeko showed he still had the spunk when he performed his classic ‘Ge she de lay, lay’.
The 2011-2012 National Carnival Committee was also introduced to the public. It was noteworthy that for the first time in carnival history the head of the committee is a female. She is former St. Kitts Carnival deputy chairperson, Shannon Hawley.
Also in the introduction line-up were the National Talented Teen and the National Carnival Queen contestants. They added to the excitement and had everyone rooting for who they thought would shine the brightest on their special night.
The new Sugar Mas jingle, performed by local soca diva, Shakki, was revealed to the crowd at the launch.
The parade also included the ‘Reach for Recovery’ support group and members of the ‘Month of the Elderly ‘committee, who made presentations and spoke about their organizations’ activities at the launch.
Beaumont Park Girls, the new dance sensation, was brought on board and showed their style.
Although the contestants were not present at the launch, SKNVibes was reliably informed that a total of 13 schools will be participating in the Prince and Princess Scholarship Pageant.
After the launch ended, the action continued with the Red Devil’s Jouvert Troupe who held a Street Foam party near The Circus along with a DJ who had the crowd rocking with his ‘livest’ music.
