THE “quarters” stage of the calypso season begins tomorrow evening with calypsonians from TOT/Soca Village going before the judges at the National Cultural Centre (NCC).
Other quarterfinal rounds will be held as follows: De Soca-Lypso Revue Calypso Tent (Thursday), South Calypso Tent (Friday) and Ambassadors Calypso Tent (Saturday).
Seven-time title-winner and Ambassadors Calypso Tent alumnus, Pep, returns to competitive calypso this season a five-year break while he was a member of Parliament.
While a number of calypsos have found their way into the last elections campaign, tent shows have been few with some shows conflicting with activities hosted by both the United Workers’ Party (UWP) and Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP) which featured performances by calypsonians and soca artistes.
Director of Carnival, Teddy Francis, said that with the campaign trail put to an end, the attention is now focussed on the Carnival season which comes to a climax on July 19 following the two-day Parade of the Bands.
“The Carnival season has picked up after the drop in pace and tempo caused by the recent elections campaign,” Francis told The VOICE yesterday. “Right now, we’re looking forward to the calypso quarterfinals being held this week.”
“The public has almost been unanimous in saying that there’s been a big bounce back for calypso compared to the last year’s,” Francis said. “The quality and number of calypsonians and fresh talent have truly been a revival.”
The popular “Piton Party in de yard” is back this year and will begin from Friday afternoon in the CSA car park in Sans Soucis while Just-4-Fun Carnival Band will also host their Cooler Fete at Gaiety on Saturday.
Another major activity, “Vavalry”, will take place on Sunday afternoon at the William Peter Boulevard. The CPMA-organized event, Francis said, will serve as a jumpstart to the Carnival season, especially since an official launch to the season was hampered by the elections period.
Meanwhile, the deadline for registration for the Party and Groovy Soca Monarch is this Saturday by which time all interested artistes should have also presented their CDs and registration forms to the CPMA. The soca prelims are scheduled for the first week of July.
During the UWP’s victory rally held in Micoud nine days ago, Prime Minister Allen Chastanet announced that government will concentrate heavily on growing the Carnival product by investing more resources into the annual event. Francis said the Prime Minister’s pledge is a much-needed shot in the arm for Carnival.
“The word from the Prime Minister is that from next year he really wants to boost more funding and emphasis on Carnival relative to the jazz festival. The artistes have been clamouring for that, so they’re really happy that he has said so,” Francis explained.
Francis said the Prime Minister is expected to make a more detailed pronouncement on government’s commitment to Carnival at a press briefing later this week.
With about a month to go before the Carnival season wraps up, Francis is appealing to Saint Lucians to support Saint Lucia Carnival, if only for something therapeutic following months of an election campaign that stole the spotlight momentarily.
![img: Will it be calypso title number eight this year for Pep? [PHOTO: Stan Bishop]](https://www.thevoiceslu.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/FP-SEC-B-new.jpg)
