The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

ALTHOUGH Junkanoo parades will not be held again this year, chairman of the Junkanoo Corporation of New Providence Dion Miller said officials still plan to celebrate the festival through several planned activities, including a potential in-person event.

In an interview with The Tribune yesterday, Mr Miller said the group is now in its final stages of planning and hopes to make an announcement soon on how they plan to commemorate the festival.

He also confirmed that all the major Junkanoo groups will be participating in this year’s festivities.

“There won’t be any traditional Junkanoo parades this year, but there will be a virtual feature presentation,” Mr Miller said. “We’re currently working on a virtual feature presentation which will include the majority of the Junkanoo groups so it will be a nice Junkanoo feature film and we are currently working with (stakeholders) as well as some of our corporate partners on finalising a Junkanoo event to be held on the 26 of December. I can’t get into details yet, but we’re in the process of finalising an additional Junkanoo experience.

“Those plans will be finalised I would say by Friday so definitely by early next week, I will be in a position where I can let the cat out of the bag and let you know exactly what we have and what we will be executing during the holiday season, but definitely there won’t be any traditional Junkanoo parades on Bay Street again this year, but the JCNP and our partners, we are working on a potential in-person experience for Junkanoo and the Bahamian people.”

 This year marks the second year the cultural parades were cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

 Following a two-year absence, Mr Miller said it is expected Junkanoo parades will return to Bay Street next year. In the meantime, Mr Miller said the organisation hopes to keep the Junkanoo spirit alive through several alternative events.

 “If you saw the reports, Carnival had an in-person event just over the weekend so with Junkanoo, we’ll do the same and so if events can happen, some form of Junkanoo will happen as well,” he said.

 Current COVID-19 rules place limitations on social gatherings, with only 20 people allowed to attend a private social event provided they are fully vaccinated.

 Social gatherings are also permitted to be held at outdoor events, however, all attendees must either be fully vaccinated or present a negative COVID test.

 All COVID-19 protocols must be adhered to in both instances.

 Asked what sort of restrictions will be in place to safeguard those attending, Mr Miller said: “It will be a private venue so the property won’t be easy access. It will be a small ticket for patrons to pay to enter the facilities. We won’t require everyone to be fully vaccinated, but we will require persons to show a negative COVID test three days prior to the event.”

 As for next year’s events, Mr Miller said: “We have already received confirmation from our partners at the ministry next year that in all likelihood we will return back to parades and so the corporation is just getting ready to plan that.

“We have a meeting scheduled with tourism week after next to get an idea to work with the Ministry of Tourism to find out what exactly their Junkanoo platform would be for next year but we anticipate that next year, we will be back to some normalcy in terms of having parades and it’s been a long road and Junaknooers are antsy and Bahamians are antsy and we want to get back to some sort of normalisation and doing what we love in a safe manner.”

He added: “...So next year is going to be a busy year and I am anticipating that there will be some of the biggest parades in terms of public support and outpouring that we have seen in our country in a long time due to this absence. So, I’m excited and I’m ready and I’ve said earlier, we just recently received 13.2 acres of Crown land to establish our Junkanoo village and right now we’re working on funding that project so there’s a lot of beautiful things that’s on stream for Junkanoo in the not-too-distant future.”