Feb. 6, 2003 – A "Cultural Roogoodoo for 2002" will give way to "Music Mas and Pageantry for Carnival 2003" with some downsizing, the V.I. Carnival Committee announced on Thursday.
There will be no fireworks and no greased pig contest, and only a third of last year's funding has been allocated by the government, but this year's Carnival will still be celebrated in style and in the spirit of its organizers, participants and enthusiasts as it has for 50 years, the committee's two main movers said at a morning press conference.
The Golden Jubilee 2002 celebration, a year-long series of events, would be a tough act to follow in any event, but the committee organizers pledged Thursday that Carnival 2003 will do it justice.
"It is the best carnival in the Caribbean and the world," said Kenneth "Lord Blakey" Blake, committee chair. He said the committee office has been "inundated" with telephone calls from last year's stateside celebrants wondering about this year's events.
Blake initially said the funding had been cut in half from $600,000 last year, but that was later corrected to $900,000 for last year. As a result, he said, the committee has cut its budget back in several areas including hotel and hospitality costs for off-island performers.
According to Blake, V.I. Carnival brings in several million dollars in gross receipts revenue to the General Fund each year and "generates over $50 million in spending throughout the community."
He was critical of published reports raising questions about the committee's spending. "People say we have too much power," he said. "We have too much work, with only volunteers."
The committee has two paid staff, Caswill Callender, executive director, and Denise Smith, administrative assistant. Smith said the committee has about 200 volunteers.
Blake said concern about private funding for the fireworks is the main reason for their cancellation this year. Randy Knight of Knight Quality Stations was again willing to contribute generously, as he has in years past, Blake said, but more funding would be needed to make the event financially viable. In recent years, Knight had rallied other business people to contribute to the effort but had remained the major supporter.
Last year, material from the fireworks apparently started a brush fire on Hassel Island that burned until late in the afternoon the next day. A similar incident had occurred about five years earlier, at a time when vegetation was extremely dry. But Blake said for Carnival 2003, potential fire isn't the main drawback; funding is.
So, in place of the sky lights on Saturday night, he said, there will be Calypso Spektakula, a revue that's to start at 10 p.m. in the Village.
As for the lard-lathered pigs, they're being dropped because of safety concerns, Blake said — not for the pigs, but for their human pursuers. The event had been canceled in the '90s in the face of objections raised by animal rights advocates but was brought back last year as a historic element of Carnival. There was comment again last year about cruelty to the citters, but Blake did not cite this as having led to the committee's decision to keep them out of Carnival once again.
The 'Music Mas and Pageantry' lineup
Carnival 2003 will officially get under way on April 6 with the Prince and Princess Show at 5 p.m. at Lionel Roberts Stadium. It will wind down on May 4 with a Trash Back Dance at 7 p.m. at Palms Court Harborview Hotel. For the full schedule of activities and preliminary events leading up to them, see the Source's "Carnival 2003 schedule".
The Carnival Village this year is being dubbed "Gerry's Place," honoring Gerald E. Hodge Sr., who'll be marking 51 years of involvement in the celebrations. In fact, he and Ron de Lugo were key players in getting Carnival going in 1952, when Hodge had his bar, Ransom House, which de Lugo visited, according to liner notes in the committee's 2002 yearbook.
For more than 30 years, Hodge has served on the V.I. Carnival Committee. He was its chair from 1986 to 1989 and served on the judging panel for 12 years.
The Food Fair, on April 30, will, as last year, open at 8 a.m., not at noon as it used to do — officially, anyhow. The idea is to give everybody an opportunity to "get there first," Blake said. It is being called "Lucia's Straw Market" this year in honor of Lucia Thomas Crabbe Penn, who has participated in the Food Fair for two decades with her baskets, hats, tarts and cakes.
Blake and Callender also showed off the 2003 V.I. Carnival poster, which features the smiling face of 13-year-old Renee Johnson, an All Saints Cathedral School student, photographed with her school's troupe during last year's Children's Parade.
Chockful of government personalities, the press conference meeting room at Palms Court Harborview was decorated with bright-colored balloons and poster boards full of photographs of Carnivals past. Wanda Mills, aide to Donna M. Christensen, was there representing the delegate, and aides from several senators' offices were busily taking notes.
One senator showed up in person, Shawn-Michael Malone, whom Blake introduced as "the Carnival man, himself," allowing as how he has been in Carnival all his life. At the age of 4, Malone was the only male member of the Sebastien Majorettes; he's still involved with the group today, as assistant director.
Expressing his interest in local music, Malone said he is going to draft legislation making quelbe the official music of the Virgin Islands. "We need more identity with our musical culture," he said.
Legislation was enacted creating the V.I. Cultural Heritage Institute, he said, but it wasn't specific enough about music. "Calypso isn't V.I. It's the whole Caribbean," he said. "But quelbe is indigenous to the Virgin Islands."
Malone said quelbe groups such as Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Knights and Smalls' Scratch Band represent authentic musical expression. He said his office is working with the institute and other entities to create the legislation.
The essential quelbe, or "scratch band," instruments are the ukulele banjo, a short-necked, four-string banjo; the conga drum, played with a mallet or stick; the squash, a gourd with grooves cut into it and played with a comb or Afro pick; and the steel, a triangle played with a metal rod. Other instruments include guitar, bass, and saxophone or flute as lead instrument. And anything picked up along the way — an old brake drum or exhaust tailpipe, for instance, is generally accepted as long as it makes music.
The Tourism Department was represented at the press conference by Monique Sibilly-Hodge, assistant commissioner and lifelong Carnival participant and promoter. Her parents, Carmen and Leo Sibilly, were the first Carnival Queen and King, in 1952, and were honored at last year's celebration.
Tourism wins award for Carnival campaign
Sibilly-Hodge announced news of her own: The Tourism Department has received a 2002 national award from the Travel Industry Association of America for its Carnival campaign, she said.
Copies of the Carnival Committee's financial report for Carnival 2002 were handed out to the media. The report shows total revenues of $1.5 million and total adjusted expenditures of $1.4 million.
Blake said the $900,000 government allocation for last year did not include the costs of Public Works Department cleanup crews and Police Department security personnel.
After the government funding, the next-largest sources of revenue shown were proceeds of $90,840 from the King and Queen Competition show and sponsorships totaling $165,889 for shows other than the King and Queen and the Prince and Princess shows.
As far
as expenditures, the largest costs shown were for "professional services" ($194,029), prizes and trophies ($144,182), music ($133,783), and staff salaries ($83,726).

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