The Carnival Bands Incorporated (CBI) on Friday reversed a decision disqualifying SVG Players International from the Queen of the Bands competition on Sunday because its costume was not mounted during preliminary judging earlier in the week.
The decision came after a meeting among stakeholders convened by the Carnival Development Corporation (CDC), and attended by SVG Players and their lawyer, the CDC and their lawyer, as well as the CBI.
On Thursday, Chairman of SVG Players, Joel John, told iWitness News that the mas band had asked its lawyer to write to the CBI asking them to reconsider their decision in an attempt to settle the matter without having to pursue legal redress.
John said that his mas band was informed Thursday morning that the CBI had called an emergency meeting and disqualified the band’s entry into the Queen of the Bands competition because the costume was in pieces when the judges visited the mas tent.
“… we started in 2001. We never used to mount our costumes,” he said, adding that the mas band is accustomed to showing the judges the drawings of the costume as well as the pieces.
“And based on that, we will go in now,” John told iWitness News, adding that the judges visited the mas tent for preliminary judging and he saw them hand in their scores to the coordinator.
John said that the band was not given any criteria for the judging, including that the costume had to be mounted.
“All they said is that they were coming. There was no criteria for judging to say, ‘Well, alright, we expect this — X, Y, Z.
“So, we were shocked when they got that thing. They were disqualified because the costume was not mounted.”
He told iWitness News that the coordinator of the judges was present and the mas band would have mounted the costume then and there, if they were told to do so.
“Nothing was said. They had a meeting this morning (Thursday) and said we did not follow the rules.”
John explained that Julian “Pilling” Pollard, who died last year, used to coordinate the interactions between the band and the judges for the preliminary assessment.
“They said we should know the rules, but I did not know the rules because Pollard used to do that,” John said, but denied that Pollard used to mount the costume for preliminary judging.
John told iWitness News that he was devastated by the decision to disqualify the costume, adding that the band had already spent more than EC$6,000 to build it.
He said that Players’ presentation this year is a tribute to Pollard, who was a costume designer and cultural ambassador.
The Queen of the Bands entry is called “Exotic Bamboo Chandelier”, which was first displayed 33 years ago by Jenilee Glasgow as a Junior Queen of the Bands entry, placing third.
With the reversal of the CBI’s decision, Glasgow will play the costume again on Sunday in the Queen of the Bands competition.
John told iWitness News that potential conflicts of interest might have influenced the CBI’s decision to disqualify Players, in light of the various positions held by some members of the team that did the preliminary judging.