By: Spokesman Newsroom
BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Wednesday 6th November 2024)-Chairperson of the St.Kitts-Nevis National Carnival Committee Shannon Hawley has expressed that Road March is in style because of the prize monies being pumped into it for Sugar Mas 53.
“…we have $33,000 up for grabs for Road March, and I think that this is the most ever that has been in place for the Road March contenders. So to those who are saying Road March is out of style, we actually think it is actually in style because of the amount of money that we are pumping into our Road March.”
Hawley said so during a live media update session aired on the official Facebook page on Wednesday 6th November 2024. As gathered there are twenty (20) songs registered for the Road March competition.
“Of course J’ouvert has always been the highlight of St. Kitts and Nevis Carnival Sugar Mas. We have always said that St.Kitts and Nevis J’ouvert in the world, and we will continue to maintain that position . poour road march is judged on J’ouvert only between the hours of 6 and 11 a.m. Our Road March this year is going to be judged a little differently to how it was judged in the past. In the past there were a series of performances and the Road March was based heavily on the performance of the Road March contenders. This year we have gone back to how it has been in the past where our judges are strategically positioned along the Road March route and once our judges hear a song being played by any of our Road March contenders, there will be a point for that song.
Hawley added: “We have simplified the process even further where we have included DJs from various registered J’ouvert troupes to take part in the Road March. We will have judges, identified and unidentified judges placed in a particular spot on the route for J’ouvert and that judge again will be able to take what song is played by the first DJ that passes the judging point for that particular J’ouvert troupe. So again, we are moving back into the simplified format of we hear a song, we tick it, which means that the most popular song on J’ouvert will end up winning the road march. In addition to that, we have increased the Road March winnings to $25,000 plus, we have added an additional $8,000 to the Road March contender who performs the best during J’ouvert. And we have a performance area in The Circus.”
The Carnival Chairperson highlighted that there are 63 songs registered for Sugar Mas this time around, altogether for the Road March competition and the Soca Monarch competition.
“Soca Monarch is back and it’s back with a bang… we have 43 songs registered for Soca Monarch. We have 10 contenders with 20 songs registered for the Road March competition, which means that we have 63 songs registered for our national carnival events that have all been released as of Friday the 1st of November. So, we have 63 songs that are released, that are playing on radio, that are getting their airplay. So nobody can say that they have not heard this song or that song or they didn’t get an opportunity for their music to be heard. So this is something that has never happened before…where by the first of November, we have 63 songs that are released and are actually rotating on various radio stations. And we are encouraging our media partners and our radio stations and thanking them for continuing to support National Carnival and support our artists, our Road March contenders to ensure that their music continues to be pushed on radio.
“We really don’t want to hear anything but local music on the radio stations from now on because we feel that there is more than sufficient music to be played, soca and carnival music to be played on radio stations from now on,” Hawley added.