Many may remember the 2006 carnival for the tear gas attack at the King and Queen Contest and the chaos and uncertainty that ensued. But as always, the show did go on and the Carnival Association says that with the return of the senior bands, it was one of their best years ever. And the best of carnival 2006 were awarded at a ceremony this evening at the Princess. The Association boasted a new logo, new chairman, and had $30,000 in prize money to share. Public relations officer Edith Tesecum told us more.
Edith Tesecum, P.R. Officer
"This evening we had invited all the carnival bands. We are making the official presentation for the prizes for everybody who won throughout the entire carnival season and also taking this opportunity to launch what we have planned for carnival 2007."
Keith Swift,
And what can you tell us? What's going to change?
Edith Tesecum,
"As far as the people that are organized, we have a lot of changes. We have changed our chairperson, we've changed the assistant, I'm still the public relations officer. We have added a fundraising officer and we have a lot of events planned where we are fundraising because what we want to do is next year, we want carnival to be bigger. We think it is time that carnival in Belize is stepped up to another level and that is what we are trying to achieve."
Following September's road march, Chairman Michael Enriquez was replaced by Patrick Thompson, his first deputy, who was voted in as the new chairman. Notably, the Carnival Association, which days prior to the road march was still scrambling for prize money, has been energized with the addition of Valerie Smith as a marketing coordinator.
