With the Carnival Road March on the horizon, the King and Queen competition was held this past Saturday. In the senior category, Belizean Jewels had the reigning queen, and Mother Nature Creation took home the crown for king. Meanwhile, in the junior category, Jump Street Posse won both categories.
Today, we spoke with all three bands, and while they're still working on the finishing touches, one long-time Carnival institution is also pleading to the public for assistance.
Kadejah Tun Retreage, Belizean Jewels, Sr Queen Champs
"I must say that this year was definitely a challenge for us but I'm very pleased. Challenging because, do I no longer live here, so it was tough for me to sort of micro manage in Texas, but every year, Belizean Jewels, we try to dance with a purpose, we always create a theme with a purpose behind it. so this year's theme is based on a little fun thing with Greek Mythology, it's when masculinity and femininity collide, and we chose to portray that theme through Medusa and Poseidon. I want to make it clear that it's not us promoting any kind of evil stuff, it's us basically saying that Medusa used her snakes to protect her so it's basically when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade kinda stuff."
"For Road March, definitely look out for details, this year Belizean Jewels is big on details."
Carla Flowers, Mother Nature Creation, Sr King Champs
"I didn't know until the day and it was very exciting for us, it's a lot of work, it's sleepless nights, the king costume was the one that gave us a lot of trouble to put together but finally we made it through."
"Our theme, what we are portraying this year is the Belizean forest."
"The king costume is King Ranka which is the jaguar of the jungle. He protected Queen Archer, she is the queen of all the animals like the birds, the black orchid, the butterflies, anything in the Belizean forest."
"For me, I always go out there and make my group do our best, what results the judges have, we just comply with it."
Marina Welcome, Jump Street Posse, Jr King & Queen Champs
"I worked very hard on a king and queen costume, I wanted to be different this year, and I watched little cartoons and stuff like that and I came up with the fantasy and I decided if I do fantasy, I can do it my style, anyway, so I came up with Festival of Fantasy and for some reason I like the little cartoon with the mermaid and I started working on that and I said nobody had done a mermaid because all the things that have been done in the past, it seems that I have already done, 38 years, so I decided to do the little mermaid."
"And then I laid in my bed, I was watching Beauty and the Beast and the Beast came to my attraction as a king, so I decided to do the beast but do it my style."
"For Carnival Road March, I'm going to give you guys a touch of Disneyland, Belizean style, my style."
"It's very hard, the sponsorship is very hard, right now people I'm pleading to you all out there, I need like $1,000 more to be complete for Saturday. Anybody can help, please call me at 671-2639."
The Mas Band Camps begin tomorrow.
