Layne heading BAM again

Anthony Layne has been re-elected as president of the Barbados Association of Masqueraders (BAM) for a second successive year.

When elections were held during last night’s Annual General Meeting, Layne shook off a challenge from Jason Thompson to retain the presidency while the majority of the Executive Board was returned unchanged.

Vice-president Bryan Worrell retained his post by defeating Jeremy Nicholls. Secretary Sonia Outram and Public Relations Officer Bryan Corbin were both reelected.

However, Corey Knight is now the new Treasurer. The floor members are Raymond Gill, Carla Gittens and Jeremy Nicholls.

Speaking to Barbados TODAY this morning, Layne acknowledged that this term will be a challenging one.

He said with discussions on the hosting of Crop Over and more specifically, Foreday Morning and Grand Kadooment to be convened, it was important the right mix was agreed on that would benefit all stakeholders.

“We are happy that a green light has been given for Crop Over and we are now set to go into discussions about the decentralized Kadooment…Yes it will be challenging because it’s really unchartered waters that we are entering into now, so it will be challenging for the bands and for the revellers as a whole,” Layne said.

“We are getting several messages as to what type of Kadooment it will be when you say decentralized and what will happen. We are going into discussions very shortly with the minister and the NCF [National Cultural Foundation] and then we will be able to more gauge how it will proceed and how we will be able to execute if possible. We know the band members, we know the revellers love to be on the road and that’s the query now that we are getting.”

Layne said while he did not think decentralizing Foreday Morning would be an issue, he said Grand Kadooment could prove to be a bit more challenging if it was held in that format. (RB)