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Ricardo Adams, chair of the Carnival Development Corporation (CDC).  (iWN photo)
Ricardo Adams, chair of the Carnival Development Corporation (CDC). (iWN photo)
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The CDC will hold four events to recognise each of the four decades of post-Lenten Vincy Mas, with the final one being a grand show dubbed “Evolution 40” on July 7.

The first event will be held on Feb. 18 on the Leeward side of St. Vincent but the exact venue will be released at a later date, Dennis Ambrose, Special Advisor to CDC (40th Anniversary Celebrations) said at the media launch of Vincy Mas 2017 in Kingstown on Tuesday.

For the First Decade, (1977 – 1987) the CDC intends to take persons back-in-time to an event called the All Star Show, which was pioneered by Granville Straker.

On this occasion, the CDC will showcase as many of the artistes whose music and performances made an indelible impression on the Carnival culture at that time, Ambrose said.

For the second decade (1987 – 1997), the footprint for this period was the “Clash of the Bands”, which was pioneered by the late Glen Jackson, a period that saw the coming of age of bands such as Touch, Blacksand, Exodus.

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Steelband will be a major feature of this event, which will take place on March 18 at a Venue to be announced on the Windward side of St. Vincent.

To mark the Third Decade (1997 – 2007), the CDC will team-up with the Union Island Easterval organisers to have a “mammoth event intertwined with the activities of the Grand Easterval programme”.

The fourth decade will be at Victoria Park for the launch of Vincy Mas on May 6.

Chair of the CDC spoke to iWitness News at the media launch about the nature of the events.

“None of the events that we are going to do for the 40thanniversary, including the pre-events, is going to be exclusive to any particular aspect, any particular component. It is just that we are going to be featuring different components,” Adams said.

He illustrated by saying that the all stars show, for example, will also incorporate aspects of pan and mas.

“So, when we get to the EVO4.0, it would basically incorporate our calypso culture, our pan culture, our mas culture, our soca culture. And bring, hopefully, together, a calalloo of what has been the best of the 40 years of Vincy Mas in a birthday party style,” he told iWitness News.

One reply on “CDC to mark Vincy Mas’ 40th with ‘EVO4.0’”

  1. I am not much of a reveler so that aspect of Carnival does not interest me too much but I am all for promoting Vincentian culture and economic development and I think we could marry the two. What I would like to see is for us to tap into the diaspora to achieve as much economic benefit from Carnival as possible.

    From social media we know that Vincentians overseas are as interested in what’s going on locally as those of us living at home I am quite certain sure that they’d be willing to pull out their credit cards to do so.

    Almost every year since I can remember, Vincentians have been calling for Carnival shows to be streamed. I know that efforts have been made to do so but with varying levels of success. It is time for the CDC to look into getting a professional streaming solution going. I wouldn’t be surprised if the stream viewers match or even surpass the number of patrons physically attending the show. And this is just thinking about Vincentians abroad. When you consider the rest of the Caribbean and people interested in Caribbean culture in general, there is tremendous potential there.

    After Carnival is over content from the shows could be packaged and sold online. Music from local artists could be made available online on platforms like iTunes etc. This would represent another avenue from which artists could profit from their creativity and hard work, in addition to providing more exposure which could open up more opportunities.

    Sometimes, I listen to classic Calypso and Soca songs on NBC Radio and I wonder if there is somewhere those songs could be purchased. If this material is made available I am sure Vincentians would consume it in droves.

    These are just some of the ways I think we can squeeze a bit more juice out of this national festival. I am sure that there are other ideas and I would love to hear about them if anyone wants to share.

    In general, what I would like is for whatever we endeavour to do as Vincentians, we don’t just think about the physical islands of St.Vincent and the Grenadines but of all people of Vincentian nationality and/or heritage. With this kind of thinking encourage us to consider how to serve our people abroad and when we can serve our own people it would not be much of a stretch to expand to serving the wider Caribbean and the world. And with this level of reach, the scope for economic advancement increases exponentially.

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