PM: Junkanoo outgrowing Bay Street

Photo by: Sherice Major

As of Thursday, December 27, 2012

By CHESTER ROBARDS

Tribune Senior Reporter

crobards@tribunemedia.net

THE VALLEY Boys swept the Boxing Day Junkanoo Parade, grabbing the top spots in all categories to win overall after the unofficial results were called last night.

The group might have hit Bay Street last, but they took first place in the off-the-shoulder, free dancer, lead costume, choreographed dancers, music, best banner and Shirley Street performance categories.

Arawak Cay erupted with cheers when it was announced that the Valley Boys had won overall. The group’s theme was “A Celebration of Queen Elizabeth the Second”.

The top-seeded Saxons also had a similar theme, but could only grasp fourth place yesterday. In the end, Roots and One Family bested the group, which hit Bay Street first.

The groups will be allowed to protest the results up to 48 hours after the end of the parade.

The parade, which has often been criticised for its late starts and gaps between groups, began on time – just after midnight – yesterday and ran smoothly.

Minister of Youth Sports and Culture Dr Daniel Johnson said he was impressed by the organisation of this year’s Boxing Day parade.

He added that the parade seating was almost completely sold out. He suggested the addition of 10,000 more seats for next year’s parade.

Prime Minister Perry Christie told The Tribune yesterday that Junkanoo might have outgrown Bay Street, and that the groups and government might want to look at relocating the annual festival.

“I’ve always liked Bay Street. It’s a great tradition here, but I don’t know that you could really serve all the people who would like to come and be comfortable in coming on this route,” said Mr Christie.

“Other countries have built sites for this kind of things, so we have to look at it to ensure that enough people can see it and it’s something that i’m going to take a great interest in.

“What’s going to have to happen here is we are going to have to emphasise people and being able to accommodate the number of people who would like to come and, as you can see, it’s a capacity crowd this year.”

He said he will have discussion with the Junkanoo groups about the possibility of moving Junkanoo off Bay Street.

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cmcphee 11 years, 10 months ago

I haven't seen a report on the Bahamian people in the crowd (a Commonwealth country) jeering and boo-ing "The Queen". Am I the only one that noticed this? Why did this happen and why has it not been reported in the media? Or are we all too ashamed and embarrassed by such behavior, we don't want to talk about it. As I was watching the Valley Boys performance I was thinking, I hope ZNS gets a good quality recording of their brilliant performance and send it to the Queen and her family to watch - she'd be touched by this. And then this happened! Remember how popular all over the world the film of Prince Harry in Jamaica was during his visit. Obviously people there have more class and respect for the Monarchy.

VDSheep 11 years, 10 months ago

Sure Bay Street has out grown Junkanoo - but remember our colonial mentality cannot get past moving it from Bay Street. Put it in the sports stadium and regulate the size of the groups or let them in one at a time for the spectators in the stadium. The Valley Boys won fair and square for highlighting the English monarchy; the very symbol that raped our people as slaves and took the monarch jewels from Africa - lately celebrating a diamond jubilee - there are no diamonds in Briton - wonder where they got them from…, Our colonial patsy system of government, our history of celebrating European culture is the most neocolonialist Bahamians can ever be. Sadly this is what we are as a people - still skewed by the European master. And most of us love it and care not to know any better.