7 News Belize

Mas Camp Madness Is On
posted (September 4, 2013)
The Belize City Carnival Road March will be held in ten days, and right now, feverish last minute preparations are underway at all the city's Mass Camps. As we found out, it is a process to get costumes and carnival spirit just right. Monica Bodden visited last night….

"Monica Bodden reporting
With carnival only days away - the carnival fever is warming up as these bands finish up the last minute touches on their costumes and perfect their dance moves. Last night our yearly carnival mass camp coverage began with the first 3 stops being 2 junior bands and one senior.

Ian Young - Member, Sunshine Masquerades
"For this year we are going under the theme, as you can see protecting our natural resources. This year we have two queens and one king, however we have the group into order. First we have the forest group, which will be led by Queen Shateya, this is the one I designed, this is my group. The designers are myself, and my two sisters. We did the designing and my Mom did the designing and the gluing and the sticking, so that is pretty much it for the forest group. Queen Shateya is the protector of the forest and is named after the Shate, there types of Chate that we have but Queen Shateya is doing the fish tail shate and in between we also have some little BDFs who are just walking around to show which depicts our theme as protecting. Then behind the Queen, we have Queenities, which is a representation of the forest fire that destroys the forest and also a representation of the Guatemalans that come in and take the Chatte so pretty much Queen is destruction, so we are depicting two things this year for King. Behind King which is a little non fictional is Queen Tatiana, who is the Queen of all Fairies. The fairies are responsible for their purity, for rejuvenating and replenishing the forest after King has passed through. The fairies are not seen so where there's little human activity, you will find these fairies. Only when destruction takes place in the forest, because when these Guatemalans come in they kill our scarlet macaw, our toucan, our tapir and they eat these things; they take our Chate and they sell it for floral arrangements and these different things so the fairies now, they are responsible to come back into the forest and start re-growth."

And these revelers who will be wearing the costumes seemed well energized and ready for the road march.

Our next stop was at the Soca Warriors carnival mass camp – where these adults were not one bit camera shy one bit as they gyrated to a playlist of soca music while the camera rolled.



Jason Belisle - Soca Warriors Band Leader
"We went patriotic, we're basing on independence of the flag and also on the country of Belize."

Monica Bodden
"How many Revelers?"

Jason Belisle
"We have 90 right now, still counting. Our theme is 'Belize fu me, Independence fu you, wave you flag with 32."

Reporter
"What has been the support in terms of sponsorship for your group?"

Jason Belisle
"Very bad, I'll be honest, everything that we do right now, what we did is from our own pocket."

And our last stop was at the Trench Town Masquerades carnival mas camp. It's their first year in carnival and they plan on bring their A-game while doing what they love.

Patricia Flores -Trench Town Masquerades
"Trenchtown Masqueraders, you know how we got our name right? "Everybody knows that. Before here had even tried to name the street, Trenchtown was the one big area back here."

Reporter
"Now, one of the surprising things we saw was that we don't see all the masqueraders, tell us how much are they and how comes we are not seeing them all reveling for the judges.?'

Patricia Flores
"Okay, we are a new band and most of my people are working. I have some people coming from too far in buses so I didn't force them to be here. I think carnival is about fun, the judges coming over to see the costume, I think carnival day is mostly where the revelers are important. "My carnival band this year, I am bringing back the old Belize celebration because trust me, Belize has too much crime, too much negativity, violence, blood shed everyday, every night I mean. They almost ruin the celebration for this year; we didn't even know if we were having carnival. From five until now carnival wasn't like this, I mean, you were able to put on anything, get out there, enjoy yourself, nobody fighting, nobody wanting to burst your head. Around these times carnival is killing, I mean if everybody loves carnival as much as I do, you should know, carnival is about fun, there shouldn't be any kind of violence, no kind of fighting, nothing like that. If you love carnival, you will feel the way I do, whether they come or whether they don't, seventy five, seventy five not, I am out there."

And, tonight, Monica is visiting another four camps – we'll have that story for you tomorrow.

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