Last night we showed you the disastrous end to the King and Queen of Carnival competition after tear gas was released at the Marion Jones Stadium. It is an unexplained and most unfortunate end to what had been a festive evening, designed to raise the carnival spirit across the community. And the revelers did do that. Before the disruption, the junior king and queen as well as the senior queens performed. The 7NEWS team was there and Keith Swift has the story of the many themes of Carnival 2006.
Keith Swift Reporting,
From Fantaxia's HMS Merlin, Erotic's King George and Queen Frieda, Mahogany Masqueraders' Belizean flag and even to Black Pearl's George Price, the 06 King and Queen was all about Belize's birthday.
Announcer: To think of George Price is to think of Belize. His life, beliefs, and values have been the guiding the light in the destiny of Belize taking it from a once backward colony of Britain to a young dynamite sovereign democratic Central American state in the Caribbean region.
That was as much pomp and circumstance you would get because this celebration of Belize was in bacchanal style on the bleachers and on the pavilion. First to the junior bands. Mahogany Masqueraders led the pack with two queens and one king.
Aiden Palacio, Mahogany Queen
"I am twelve year old Aiden Palacio. I am proudly representing the Mahogany Masqueradors Carnival Band. I am Reina the Queen Orchid. Reina the Queen Orchid was born on September 21st 1981...I've been dancing in carnival for four years."
Adrian Garnett, Mahogany Queen
"I am 15 year old Adrian Garnett representing the most unique carnival
of all, Mahogany Masqueraders. I costume's colors is representing the Belizean flag. I am the queen of the independence. I will be 25 years old on September 21st."
Ashmon Wiltshire, Maohgany King
"Hi my name is Ashmon Wiltshire. I am fourteen years old and proudly
representing Mahogany Masqueraders. I am the drums of freedom. I have been dancing carnival for a long while but I've been with this band for four years."
Black Pearl's ode was to George Price. Shannel Guy was queen and Charles Martinez was the king with a bigger than life bust of the man they call the father of the nation.
Charles Martinez, Black Pearl King,
"My name is Charles Martinez. I am portraying the father of the nation, Belize at 25...about two weeks to make it."
Shannel Guy, Black Pearl Queen
"We are portraying Father of the nation, Belize at 25."
Perennial favorite among the juniors is Jump Street Posse. This year they entered
two queens and one king. We start with the Bird of Paradise by Kimara Garnett.
Kimara Garnett, Jump Street Queen
"I am fifteen year old Kimara Garnett from the loveable Jump Street Posse. I am Rosemarie the Bird of Paradise. I bring love and beauty to the rainforest."
Veronica Flores, Jump Street Queen
"I am Veronica Flores and I am fifteen years old. From a pupa to a caterpillar and then I bloom into this beautiful butterfly. I am Raven, my beauty speaks for itself. I am 15-year-old Veronica Flores from the unpredictable Jump Street Posse...I feel excited. You feel like nervous for the first time because it is the first time for me. I will go out
there and do to the best of my ability what I need to do and I will go out there and rock this costume tonight."
Jump Street's king is defending champion Justin Gill. At 16, this is Justin's sixth year in the carnival.
Justin Gill, Jump Street King
"I am 16 year old Justin Gill from the fantastic Jump Street Posse. I am Bambido the two headed dragon. I chase and scare away people and animals that come to destroy my beautiful rainforest...I have a lot of fans so I know a lot of people out here tonight come to see because I told them I am going up again and so they said they were going to come out and they are all waiting out there to see me go and rock this costume. This costume is a beauty and I am a very good dancer so when I go out there I will rock my costume. I will show them what I got to do."
Justin blew his chance at a consecutive win after the two heads on his dragon fell. But for what it is worth, e continued dancing.
The ever-present Sunshine Masqueraders focused on endangered species. Specifically the Scarlet Macaw and the Manatee.
For the seniors, bigger was better. Fantaxia's Pride of Independence went to head with Erotic's Freida, the Queen of Celebration, and Mother Nature's Parrot Fish.
Carlene Williams, Fantaxia's Queen
"I am Carlene Williams representing Fantaxia Band. My queen outfit is
representing the pride of independence. We decided to go patriotic this year in terms of our independence, when Belize got its independence on 21st of September 1981. This is what my costume is basically portraying, the independence of Belize, the struggle that we went through to get to independence day. If you look up here you will see seven flags; three on the right side and three on the left. They represent the six districts of Belize and the one in the middle represents our capital Belmopan."
Anita Hamilton, Erotic's King
"This basically is representing Freida, Queen of Celebration. It is the Queen that followed the victory from King George that was led to victory after the Spaniards and the Baymen with the Baymen being victorious."
Fantaxia's Jesus Caceras and his "HMS Merlin" was the only senior
king who made it on stage Saturday night.
Jesus Caceras, Fantaxia's King
"I am Jesus Caceras representing Fantaxia. I am representing the ship for the His Majesty Ship Merlin...I have to have energy to move it. This is the ship so I'll show everybody how you could do a thing for Fantaxia."
Following Jesus' performance, tear gas was released and chaos ensued. That's when the Carnival Committee decided to put an early end to Saturday night's show. No one got to see Erotic's Brent Hamilton as King George and no one got to see Mother Nature's Robert Jorgenson as a sea horse. That didn't score the Carnival Committee any points with the Erotic camp. Anita Hamilton vented.
Anita Hamilton, Erotic Mas Band
"We fully agree with everybody having to go in respect to safety. We
fully one hundred percent agree but the tabulators and the judges went through the gate with the scores."
Keith Swift,
Do you guys feel shafted? You did all this preparations and then this.
Anita Hamilton,
"Most surely. This is our hours on end. Our band leader and all helpers, if we have had a maximum of nine hours of sleep in the last three days, that is a lot. We have to be feeling this way."
And in a year when sponsorship was at an all time low - Erotic's costume designer David Matus says despite all the controversy and all the problems - there was still a king and queen contest this year because they are in it for the love of it.
David Matus, Erotic Mas Band
"We needed to do something Belizean and something that would bring us back to where we came from and being that we had the tenth day of September war or the battle, we decided to come up with the theme with having King George and Queen Freida...we started late due to the fact that we did not have the funds to build the costumes at the size we wanted. We wanted the queen's costume much bigger but we had to settle for what we have now."
Keith Swift,
With all the problems, why do you guys still participate in carnival?
David Matus,
"I guess for the love of it and the fact that we have a lot of supporters of who look for us every year."
Judging by the packed bleachers on Saturday night - we'd say there are more than just a "few" supporters.
Jump Street Posse came out on top for junior queen and junior king went to the Mahogany Masqueraders. The winner of the senior queen competition should have been announced today but up to late this evening the results still had not been released. The senior king meanwhile will be judged on Saturday, Carnival Day, just prior to the start of the road march.
