When the bands played mas'
by GERCINE CARTER
Thousands of revellers pranced and wined their way across the National Stadium stage yesterday to a somewhat lukewarm reception from the hundreds in the stands as Crop-Over 2009 came to a colourful climax.
But for the 22 bands parading before the judges, compared to 25 last year, it was a Hennessy Cognac Grand Kadooment for which they were primed, and they had a blast.
In keeping with tradition, Walk Holy 2009, under the direction of leader Marcia Weekes, was the first band to hit the stage around 8:30 a.m. They chose the theme The Battle to portray the church working with Government and social agencies to “rid society of its social evils”.
Next on stage was the 600-strong Blue Box Cart Party People attempting to “bamboozle” the senses with seven sections of colourful costumes.
This year the band’s Recipe To Rapture was a list of fabulous cocktails executed in costumes by band leader Raymond Gill and designers and producers Sheena Gill and Sandie Archer.
Brilliant sunshine bathed Renee Ratcliffe’s sugar cane fields as 445 masqueraders presented the story of Barbados’ sugar industry in Ratcliffe’s and Mount Gay’s band Sweet Fuh Days.
The arrows topping ripe canes in Reap d Sweet, the Master Blenders of Barbados’ rum and the sugar cakes in Sweet Tooth were sections executing the sugar theme and at the same time reminding all that Crop-Over is “sweet fuh days”. Renee said she and her mother made all the costumes.
Things heated up with the arrival of the 1 200-strong Baje International serving up a strong dose of Baje mas’ in Fire And Ice. It was the band’s tenth anniversary of Kadooment appearances and the fire came in Mojitos, Singapore Slings and Manhattans, three of the six sections by R ichard Haynes and Corey Knight.
King Of The Bands Trevor Chase led Ooutraje with an energetic performance in the impressive costume which won him the top prize last Friday night. It echoed the theme of his band The Beginning, casting the spotlight back to the arrival of the first Barbadians, with the Sunrise Of Their Arrival, The Africans who came and the Brown Sugar produced on the island.
His daughter Sophia Chase from Ooutraje also paraded the De Village Belle costume which brought her second place last Friday night.
The wind presented a serious challenge to Trevor Nicholls, king of Gwyneth Squires’ band Hidden Treasures. But flagperson Didi Winston’s agility must have transferred to the man who placed second in the Parade of Kings as he managed to show off his costume with some assistance from the doyenne herself, Squires.
Well-choreographed movements characterised the parade of the 400-strong Hidden Treasures band in which Squires expertly executed a range of themes, capturing some of Barbados’ scenic beauty.
Chetwyn Stewart again managed to power 1 500 masqueraders to the National Stadium in Power X 4’s Love & Revelry 15 Years, the largest band in this year’s Grand Kadooment.
Though the cost of producing the band rose, Stewart said his costume prices did not, and so he attracted his same number of loyal revellers.
For another veteran, Betty West, taking a band to the Stadium this year was “a struggle”.
However, she put 375 masqueraders on stage in the band Barbados Back Den, and led them wearing the queen costume with which she placed third on Friday.
The last band left the Stadium just after 2 p.m.
Chief executive officer of the National Cultural Foundation Dr Donna Hunte-Cox told the DAILY NATION at the end of the Stadium parade: “If we want Grand Kadooment . . . to be the spectacle that it should be, then we have to inject some money into it . . . ”.