No judging of party bands ‘to ease traffic’

During this year’s Grand Kadooment, party bands will no longer be judged—a move aimed at easing long-standing traffic congestion along the route to Spring Garden.

The decision came after extensive discussions between the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), the Barbados Association of Masqueraders (BAM), and band leaders.

Bryan Worrell, head of BAM, explained that the decision came out of postmortem meetings held after last year’s Crop Over festival, when a late start to the parade compounded the problem.

“We had issues in terms of how the bands progressed through the judging,” he said. “It was a bottleneck at the beginning where it was very long for the bands to actually get on the road to get going. That resulted in bands getting down to the end of the road after 8; some bands will be near [Spring Garden] at 9 o’clock. It was too long.”

He added, “In an effort…to ease the time of bands getting out to get on the road, we came up with the plan to let the party bands not judge—not judging directly what how fast you pass the judging stage. That should quicken the procession of bands actually getting from the assembly to actually getting on the road.”

Since the changes mean party bands will forfeit the opportunity to win competitive prizes, the NCF and BAM have agreed to compensate them by redistributing the prize money.

“In terms of the subvention, we would have looked at how you can compensate the bands if they’re giving [up] the prize monies that they would have won. So then we divided what would have been the prize monies allotted amongst the bands equally, and that was agreed on by the bands,” he said.

However, heritage bands will continue to be judged and are still eligible to compete for prizes.

“So heritage bands, it still allows them their space to be judged, It still allows them their space to win the party’s monies, etc. Traditionally, there have been more party bands on the road than heritage bands. You know, with that said, they can still do their thing and not necessarily slow down the process. So getting them through the judging stage and area faster will help alleviate [the backup],” Worrell explained.

He dismissed any concerns that the change would lead party bands to display less creativity compared to their heritage counterparts.

“Every band that goes on the road has to be creative, whether it’s a party band or a heritage band. You have to appeal to the masses of people that are in your demographic that you are marketing to. So to say lack of creativity, those are terms that don’t really have any substance. If I’m doing a party band, I still have to be creative enough to capture the imagination of the people that are looking for a party band to jump in. So in terms of heritage, there are revellers that are interested in jumping in heritage bands…there’s still a market for it.”

Efforts to reach the NCF for a comment on the change proved unsuccessful.

shamarblunt@barbadostoday.bb