7 News Belize

More Mas Camp Craziness
posted (August 31, 2012)
If you are not in a Carnival Band - it's may be difficult to understand the psychology of a mas camp. But those who are in it know that it's about doing the impossible: making ornate eye-catching costumes with very little money - and then getting everyone wearing them mentally and physically ready to dance for hours in the blazing sun of Carnival Day.

Monica Bodden went back into the Mas Camps to feed off the energy last night and she has this final report.

Monica Bodden reporting
The carnival spirit continues throughout the city - as we made our way around town to cover the last 6 carnival mas camps.

We began on the Southside of the city at the Black Pearl Camp.

Kendra Buller- Black Pearl Junior Band
"This year Black Pearl is representing mother nature and everything that lies within. We are basically depicting the flora/fauna, the Caribbean sea and everything that mother nature gave to us we are appreciating this year."

Monica Bodden
"Tell us a little bit about the costumes."

Kendra Buller- Black Pearl Junior Band
"We have 5 different sections that we are depicting. We are the blossoming flower, we have the wild flower, we have the tropical trees and we have the animals which depict the jaguar, panther, leopard and all the animals that basically live in the rainforest and are rulers of the rainforest."

"Then we have the day and night section which sums of everything - basically they need the cycle of how day and night works - some of them are nocturnal animals. One of them needs the sun to survive; the plants and flowers. Basically that sums up our costumes."

These are just a few of the revelers for Soca Warriors Carnival Band - but that didn't stop the energy from pumping as these adults gyrated for the judges and the massive crowd.

Jason Belisle - Band Leader, Soca Warriors
"We are portraying the Creole, Maya and Garifuna. The Creole costumes are red, yellow and green. The Maya, aqua blue and we mixed it with peacock and silver. The Garifuna, we used the color from the Garifuna flag - the yellow, black and white. We just combine it and try to stray away from the cultural part of it and bring carnival in it."

"Last year before carnival was over I came up with the theme for this year. I even come up with the theme for next year already."

Monica Bodden
"How long did it take you guys to put the costumes together and so forth?"

Jason Belisle - Band Leader, Soca Warriors
"From February to now."

And then it was unto another junior band - It's their second year in carnival and Western Paradise says they are more than ready for the carnival road march. The band's 56 revelers will be depicting electricity, water and oil.

Justin Gill - Band Leader, Western Paradise
"Well this year I always try things inside and outside the box and then you are tired of seeing one setting over and over, so I decide to portray something that we all used every day and its one of our daily necessity; electricity, water and oil. Electricity, water and oil sometime it can be highly costly and sometimes it can be less costly."

Reporter
"When you say electricity, water and oil - I am going to assume that those are some of your sponsors as well."

Justin Gill - Band Leader, Western Paradise
"Yes I would like to give a big thank you to the Belize Electricity Limited. To Belize Water Services and that would be about it for those companies. I haven't gotten any response or support from the oil company, neither the fuel stations and as you can see my costumes were portraying all of them because from BNE - they distribute fuel and oil to all other stations; Shell, Texaco and Esso. I am just looking out for assistance from them."

"Things right now is going a little slow. I started from April; we are a little way, but still we need more assistance as well as we are looking for more revelers. We have a total of 56 revelers and I am trying to make that 75, so any parents who are interested to get their kids sign up, you can come over to the mas camp or they can reach me at 653-9367."

Next stop was at Pickstock Carnival Band where the hype was on full blast.

Band Leader Gareth Gill told us about their theme this year- which is -Nuh Touch Pan Mi Jungle.

Gareth Gill - Pickstock
"Who love animals knows that when you hear "no touch pan mi jungle" you know don't even touch our beautiful animals and I love animals. At times we need to protect and preserve our jungle also because we can't be killing out our animals and our trees and different things - we need to preserve them - it is like our brother and sister - friendly relationship with our animals. I just believe that it's a positive theme and Pickstock is going out there strong."

"The first group is queen fania - they are the protector of the mother maker, which is Shanta Zetina, she will portray that. We have queen florasol which is Kamar Bent and we have king jungular which is Derrick Menzies."

The temperature was steaming hot over on the north side - where we met up with Mother Nature Carnival Band. These well energized revelers made it clear in their movements that they are more than ready for the carnival road march.

Leroy Green - Band Leader, Mother Nature Creation
"Mother Nature always believes that carnival is about fantasy. What we try to do since we live in Belize we try to bring out fantasy combine with reality. Our theme this year is "Fusion" an amalgamation of reality and fantasy."

"We have three sections; one is led by queen pharaoh, she is a sorceress who lives under the sea, colors are beautiful to look at but her face is ugly. What she does is blind the sailors with her bright light, she doesn't have any arms, so arms are tentacles of fire and that goes out and it drags down the sailors under the sea. The revelers will be dress in all of these different colors. Each of the costume are like that; that's for group one."

"Then we have group two; that is led by king combo; that's myself. King combo is the exact opposite of queen pharaoh, he is the salvation. When he sees what queen pharaoh is doing, he comes up out of his seat and he shines a light that blinds queen pharaoh and pulls the sailors onto the shore to safety."

"Then we have group three led by queen Cleopatra; she is the spirit of the logwood because the logwood was the very first industry that Belize had. After a while the sailors all intermingle with the black slaves and the Belizean population was formed. She represents unity, settlement and industry. Her colors are green, gold and she represents actually that fact that settlers now live in Belize, call Belize their home and starts working towards the development of Belize."

Monica Bodden
"How do these ideas came about?"

Leroy Green - Band Leader, Mother Nature Creation
"To be totally honest they came up while I was asleep and I got up 2:30 the morning and drew what I had to draw and wrote the story because if I had not done it then I would have completely forgotten it. We are a band in believe in going on the internet or going onto a carnival book and taking out a costume because if it is called Belize carnival we believe it should have its own identity."

And they are back again! That's right, Erotic Carnival Band is once again apart of the carnival festivities - only difference is, the group is not competing in the carnival road march.

With its 90 revelers strong, they say they just want to have fun, bring energy and charisma come carnival day.

David Matus - Designer, Erotic
"Erotic's theme this year is "2012 and Beyond." We are doing the Mayan people."

Monica Bodden
"Tell us a little bit about the costumes?"

David Matus - Designer, Erotic
"The costumes this year - we have 3 different sections; we have the Mayan people which is the first section, the destruction and the last section which is the beginning. If you look at the first section we have the Mayan colors, the Mayan design is in that section. The second section; we have red and black because this is the destruction; that's when they believe that the world is coming to an end. So we decided to do something along that line. The third section is the blue and silver section which is the new beginning. This is life after we have parted from here."

Monica Bodden
"How long did it take you to actually put this whole entire idea together - this concept?"

David Matus - Designer, Erotic
"This idea was put together a long time ago because 2012 was the year that we wanted to come back. Members kept asking us to come back from 2008 and I decided that I am going to be in Belize this year, so I am going to do carnival in Belize this year with my old group Erotic Mas Band."

"Instead of having a band that is quantity we want a band that quality, so we are only catering for 90 people strong. Come carnival day our take is line up at number one. Trust me the bands will have to follow the leader on carnival day."

The pre-Carnival events peak tomorrow with the Carnival King and Queen competition which is scheduled to start at 7:30 at the MCC Grounds.

We'll have coverage of that on Monday.

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