Mas Camp 2014 Wraps Up in Belize City
The Carnival Road March 2014 is a week away and since Tuesday of this week, the fourteen bands competing were judged in the preliminary stage of the event. Thursday was the final night for the camps and saw five bands judged. Duane Moody was out once again and has the wrap up of Mas Camp 2014.
Duane Moody, Reporting
The final night for mas camp 2014 got underway on Thursday. The five remaining bands took to their respective areas, bringing life to the streets with the latest soca tunes and unique and creative concepts. Soca Moca was our first stop for the night…The theme for the group is Belize It or Not! And in collaboration with OCEANA, the group is highlighting many wonders of the Jewel.
Pauline Bradley, Head Designer, Soca Moca
Pauline Bradley
“I work in tourist village and every day I hear the tourist talk about how rich Belize is and they would die to live in a country as Belize. And then we have our locals here wanting to go abroad. We have gold right here; we are walking on the street of emerald and gold and that’s what the first segment is portraying Emerald City. Section number two; that’s the jaguar and everybody knows that the jaguar is our national symbol. And then we have the third section which is the blue hole and then the fourth segment is the lionfish. Yes the lion fish doesn’t have anything to do with Belize. It came here by mistake, but at the same time we have to deal with it. This lionfish is eating up a lot of our juvenile lionfish and tell Belizeans about this lionfish.”
Two blocks away on Fairweather Street, were the Soca Warriors Seniors. Their theme is Good Conquers the Bad.
Shanalee Ortiz
Shanalee Ortiz, Representative, Soca Warriors
“It took us quite a while to put it together, but it’s here.”
Duane Moody
“Tell us about what we’ll see on the streets come carnival road march 2014?”
Shanalee Ortiz
“You should see hypeness, fun and the whole theme setting that we put together.”
It was then Belizean Jewel to present to the judges their theme, “Ancients Behaving Badly – Cleopatra Finding a Wife for her Son.”
Denise Young
Denise Young, Band Leader, Belizean Jewel
“Cleopatra decided to capture all the newborn babies so that she can keep them pure for her son, so that her son can find a wife that is a virgin. She is pure that’s why we have a white section. And then the next section is that they did this big carnival ball so that everybody can see his wife. But he didn’t find his wife then, so the queen said let’s put a little brightness in this dance so she did this green section. At that time, the son said wow, that’s where he saw his wife and then she escaped from him. When she escaped, she went into this big beautiful colors, but still Octavia found his wife in all those colors. And they got married and up to now this ball continues every September even here in Belize.”
Duane Moody
“Now we know that Belizean Jewel almost took the title last year and of course you are coming back for the win. Tell us about that.”
Denise Young
“Of course. Our first year we placed third, last year we placed second and this year we are hoping for first.”
Eternity Mas Band is next. They have been partaking in the Carnival Road March for eight years and this time, their theme is “Unity is Strength – Different Colors, One People; Our Land, Our People, Our Riches.”
Tara Williams
Tara Williams, Assistant Band Leader, Eternity Mas Band
“We have four different sections and one of the biggest ones is the Rastafarians section. Everybody wanted us to bring it back and we used that to encompass the sections for the other. The colors are green, yellow, red and black and all of these colors have meanings to it. The green and orange, which represents the land, that consists of the flowers, leaves and everything that’s beautiful in our country. Then we have our diamonds, which is the lost gold, which is the yellow in the costume for Rastafarians. And that just talks about the gold and riches that we were robbed of and taken from us. And then we have the third section which is the pink and gold and that is the sacrifice section. Our people who gave up their lives and everything to make us the way we are today. Even our Belizean culture, independence…we are celebrating our culture. So that sums all of it up. The black just signifies the people in our country. We are ancestors of Africa and stuff like that.”
President of the Carnival Association, Patrick Thompson, spoke of the judging criteria for the preliminaries of the carnival road march. He says that while the junior and senior costumes are judged separately, the preliminary judging represents twenty percent of the final score.
Patrick Thompson
Patrick Thompson, President, Carnival Association
“The judges are looking for creativity; how the group brings their design to life. That is ten points. They are also looking at creativity; this is how well as I say the costume comes to life. They are also looking at appearance, neatness of the costume and blend of colors; which are another ten points which tallies to the twenty points that they are looking for tonight and the previous two nights.”
Now all that is standing between these fourteen bands and the Carnival Road March on September thirteenth is the King and Queen Competition that is set for Saturday at Rogers Stadium in Belize City. Each band will produce one king and one queen only to compete in the giant costume war. Duane Moody for News Five.
