By Precious Mills
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Wednesday 16th August 2023) – In sharing their views stemming from the recent staging of carnival festivities throughout the Caribbean region, two top Sugar Mas officials namely Chairperson of the St.
Kitts-Nevis National
Carnival Committee Carnival Shannon Hawley and Director of National Carnival Clement ‘Monarch’ Ogarro have both expressed confidence in the expectations for the upcoming festivity. Both shared such sentiments during a live television appearance on a show dubbed ‘Sugar Fix’ aired on ZIZ on Monday 14th August 2023 which saw the launch of the Sugar Mas 52 calendar of events featuring nineteen (19) days of action, from Friday 15th December 2023 to Tuesday 2nd January 2024.
“I took the opportunity to view a number of carnivals this past couple weeks, and we really have some very, very special to offer – LOCAL NEWS – 3 and that is why we are inviting everyone from around the region and internationally to come and participate last and first carnival of the year. There is nothing more special than
that,” Hawley stated. According to her: “Our j’ouvert is by far the best j’ouvert in the world and our grand parade has become so spectacular because of the troupes and their leaders that put all and of course the participants that really put their all into ensuring that our grand parade and Last Lap is really special…,” Ogarro noted during his comments: “I know that there are two other carnivals around the same time but Sugar Mas is a different type of animal right now…” Speaking about the winning slogan ‘All In With Your Crew For Sugar Mas 52’ submitted by Aliquah Patrick, Hawley said advertising for submissions started very early.
“We started very early this year because we wanted to ensure that we reached out to as many people in the region and internationally as possible to let them know that Sugar Mas 52 is on and popping, and there were over 300 [submissions] and we pined through them; we went through them back and forth and had conversations about what really is the essence of National Carnival…when you think about National Carnival; when you think about National Carnival, what do you feel?…” Hawley added: “We had a lot of submissions with crews because you know people tend to rhyme based on the 52 so we had a lot of submissions based on crew this…and crew that …but in terms of the one that captured the real essence of Sugar Mas was ‘All In With Your Crew For Sugar Mas 52’. And that can mean so many things but at the end of the day
when someone says ‘All In With Your Crew’, you know that they’re bringing in everybody; you know that it is all about revelry, it’s about fun, freedom, excitement, jubilation-every facet of what we consider a national carnival to represent…Those few words identifies that national carnival feeling.” Ogarro chimed in saying: “When you compare us to some of the other carnivals, they are specific about a certain period that is like the high point of the carnival. Of course, we’re going to have pre-events prior to the opening but we’ve gone back to the two weeks of power.” “19 days of non-stop activity; every single…
We have ensured that we reached out to private promoters and to them we are completely grateful because they are our partners, and because we cannot do everything ourselves. We have to depend on the general public, stakeholders come in… all in,” Hawley remarked.
As highlighted by her, the deadline for submission for private events was Friday 11th [August] “and we had so many submissions with this first version because this is version one of our calendar but even on this release that we’ll be doing tonight, they’ll be events catering to a cross section of the general public; every single night from the 15th of December which is the grand opening to the 2nd of January which is Las Lap; guaranteed full on fun.” The National Carnival Director told: “We are looking for the difference in terms of what the private promoters. We’re looking for variety.
We don’t want every fete with a big band and a big DJ or whatever it is. I mean that’s fine too; that’s part of the carnival but we’re looking for a variety of things to involve to kids, teenagers, older folks and that’s one of the things that is going to be a difference this year for us, not so much the carnival activities because people are expecting us to do the calypso show, the soca monarch and the pageants and stuff like that, so the variety.” “We’re going to be in tip top shapes in our events as well too, as we always do.
Just looking around at other carnivals, I think we’re in a very, very good place; a very, very, very good place, and we’re about take it a step higher, and our private partners will definitely help us by creating that variety that makes carnival the success that it should be,” Ogarro outlined further.
