Mr Harding definitely had an impact on the traditionally large Kadooment bands on the road yesterday, with a noticeably significant reduction in numbers playing mas.
Lucky Horseshoe’s Jump, which last year saw 900 revellers on the road, was down to a mere 350. Managing director of Paul’s Enterprises, Paul Johnson, said it was a difficult year to sell the band.
In addition, he was forced to change designers because of the illness of his usual designer. Jump turned to Trinidadians Ian and Nina McKenzie.
“We were hoping for 550 people but we did not sell what we wanted to sell this year,” Johnson said. Nonetheless, he guaranteed band members a good time on the road with entertainers like Biggie Irie performing on his music truck.
Veteran Gwyneth Squires put her paucity in numbers down to lack of sponsors. She said sponsorship was “very difficult” this year and she was also concerned that Foreday Morning was having a negative impact on her numbers.
“I don’t like it at all,” said the band leader who has carried off top Kadooment prizes for many years, as she led her colourful band of just 350 out of the National Stadium to parade down to Spring Garden.
Fortunes for the religious band Walk Holy might be said to have been better, if an increase by one could be considered such. Designer Patricia Evanson was satisfied with the look of the 17 conservatively-clad revellers who took to the street behind the large Blue Box Cart band, the first to hit the road after the 8:30 a.m. start.
From all appearances, this band, which orginates from the popular Harbour Lights nightclub, outdid itself with numbers this year.
The 86 Guadeloupeans in Point Interrogation (Question Mark) brought a different tone to the Kadooment masquerade. Leader Son Jon told the Daily Nation: “We want to demonstrate that there is a new way of doing carnival, of playing the music, and we want to show the Caribbean people that there is a new way of doing things.”
Speaking through an interpreter, he said it was an honour for the band to have been invited by the National Cultural Foundation to participate in Kadooment.
Band members, in blazing red costumes and painted bodies, created a stir as they emerged from the National Stadium playing their own music with drums, conch shells and maracas, moving at a slower pace than their accustomed fast clip in Guadeloupe’s carnival.
But it was US-based Barbadian Avery Hackett who took Kadooment on the road to a new level, providing the most luxurious accommodation for the 450 revellers.
There was an air-conditioned VIP lounge where band members who paid the premium price of a reported $3 600 for that section, were able to break away from the heat of mas to relax in comfort, while A-class chefs prepared gourmet-styled meals along the route.
