Mas Bands News

Head of the Carnival Mas Bands Association Hugh Ragguette says that while the band Singer Lynx will not be competing this year, the band Xtreme Fanatics will make their first competitive appearance with a presentation called ‘Chaos’.

Speaking during a press conference on Monday March 28th, Ragguette said that since Singer Lynx entered the Mas Bands competition in 2004, they have made a number of good presentations. He said that in 2004 they won the Best Junior Section of the year title with “Abracadabra” while they won the Section of the Year title in 2005.

“They have requested to have a one year period to observe and take time to review their involvement in the masquerade component so that when they return in 2012 we would be able to see improvements in their overall production”, said Ragguette. Members of Singer Lynx could not be readily reached for a comment.

Meanwhile, the Mas Bands Association’s head man said that this year, they have decided to bring back the ‘Band of Year Peoples Choice’ award where patrons will be asked to vote for their favorite masquerade band. This was last done in 1989. Ragguette said that this suggestion came from the judges. He said that the association will be holding discussions with LIME, “to see how we could use modern technology to stimulate interest in the band of the year peoples’ choice award”.

The participating bands for 2011 are, SVG Players International (At the Movies), Tribes Mas Band (Tribes of Africa), Blondie Bird and Friends (Nature’s Fury), Dragon’s Cultural Organization (Journey through the Silk Road), Nelson Bloc (From our Caribbean Garden), Mirage Productions (White Darkness), Melbourne Artisans (Splendor and Magnificense), Owen Ralph and the Professionals (Clowning Around), High Voltage Mas Productions (Emotions in Colour), Ahdrenalin Mas (Fashionista), Imagination (formerly My Imagination) (Explosion of Colours), Beautex International (Heat) and Xtreme Fanatics (Chaos).

SVG Players launched their production on Saturday April 9th . Ahdrenalin launched on Sunday 10th and so did Imagination. On Saturday April 30th, Owen Ralph and Xtreme Fanatics will have their launch. Dragons launch will be on May 1st.

Addressing other aspects of the Mas Bands Competition, Ragguette said that this year, “having regard for transparency the preliminaries of the Kings and Queens of the Band will be held at one location to be announced”. He said that all the Kings and Queens of the Bands will gather on two separate nights for preliminary judging to select the semi-finalists.

“This year the reigning Queen and King from Blondie Bird and Melbourne Artisans respectively will defend their titles; they will not appear in the prelims they will defend at the Dimache Gras finals”, said Ragguette.

Dimache Gras will take place on Sunday July 3rd while Junior Carnival is scheduled for Saturday June 25th and Mardi Gras for Tuesday July 5th.

12,04.2011 - Story by Lyf Compton