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The carnival road march will be held on Saturday September 6th. The date was announced today at the launch of the Carnival Association’s calendar of activities. But perhaps the biggest news is what isn’t on the calendar and that is the King and Queen Competition. NICH President Dianne Haylock says the kings and queens will be judged on the same day as the road march.

Dianne Haylock, NICH President
“We just won’t have all the activities that we normally have at this time of the year. And another thing that has been an inhibitor for us has been the fact that the stadium as you know is also under renovation. And so like when we would have our usual king and queen contest there, we can’t do that. And so the judging of the king and queen, we will still have king and queen but it will be judged during the parade. So that is something that is going to be difficult this year. There are lots of ideas we have that we think will help to make carnival in Belize generally bigger and better. We are not able to do them 2008 but we are sure these are things we will be able to make sure happen come 2009.”

Other activities on the calendar are the lottery pick at the House of Culture on August 9th and the jouvert at 4 am on carnival morning. A big change is that the road march will now begin at the corner of Faber’s Road and Central American Boulevard. That is because without use of the Marion Jones Stadium, the road march will probably end at the BTL Park. That however has not been finalized. Six senior and six junior bands have signed up to participate.

And a major part of the activities will be a carnival song contest. NICH President Dianne Haylock explained what they’re looking for.

Dianne Haylock,
“So what we are saying is let us begin to give some support to generate our own soca music. Many of us who used to jam behind Rhaburn in the days at 10th of September. When 10th of September was the 10th of September, everybody fought to get behind Rhaburn because Rhaburn would be bringing out a new song or two. The point is if we nurture a soca competition, we will begin to be able to have our own soca songs that our bands can dance to with the same excitement and enjoyment that we do currently to these songs that we’ve danced to over the years.”

The House of Culture will be the control center for the Carnival Association. A new executive has been elected and that is headed by previous president Patrick Thompson.

7NEWS produced for broadcast by News Director Jules Vasquez
Edited and Prepared for the internet by Keith Swift