Vincy Mas blasts off tomorrow at Victoria Park

“Park goin’ sell aff!”

That’s the expectation of chair of the Carnival Development Corporation (CDC) Dennis Ambrose, as it relates to the 2016 launch of Vincy Mas, scheduled for this Saturday, May 7, at the Victoria Park.{{more}}

Speaking on Tuesday at the CDC’s Vincy Mas pre-launch press conference, Ambrose said that for the second time ever, the CDC will launch Vincy Mas at Carnival City, Victoria Park, as the various committees and working partners agreed that changing the venue from the Solidarity Inc Car Park, was a positive one.

“It turns out that the ever-growing, mammoth crowds of highly enthusiastic patrons and participants validates this switch in venue, and overall, the CDC is pleased with this change,” said Ambrose.

Giving a rundown of Saturday’s launch events, Ambrose said that the action will begin from Saturday morning with whistle stops on the Windward and Leeward sides of the island.

“Hitz FM as usual, is on board for yet another year, bringing excitement to the masses from the Leeward side and X-treme FM for the second time on board, will be coming in from the Windward side. Both are great partners with the CDC in this accord, and we applaud their efforts to continue to make Vincy Mas the great festival that it is,” said Ambrose.

The launch parade will begin at 6 p.m. from the Cruise Ship Complex and will take persons through the streets of Kingstown to Victoria Park.

“This will be more elaborate than it was last year.

It will showcase aspects of the Vincy Mas programme. This will include the old time carnival, pan, the Miss SVG contestants, Vincy Mas winners from 2015, floats from the various sponsors, preview of Monday T-Shirt bands and of course, some Mardi Gras costumes. This entire package would highlight Carnival 2016,” stressed Ambrose on Tuesday, noting that the official launching ceremony begins at 7 p.m. at the Victoria Park.

“…of course, we have a wonderful package…our sponsor, FLOW, will be working along with the CDC to provide a great after-party. This is an event which is generally very exciting, especially to our young people,” said Ambrose, who feels confident that Vincy Mas will begin with a “bang”.

“Remember that last year, we predicted that ‘Park goin’ sell aff’, well, this year is no different. We anticipate that it will be even more of a ‘sell aff’,” said Ambrose.

“The CDC continues to work with the components to ensure that the activities of Vincy Mas run smoothly. We continue to integrate our plans, and work together to straighten out potential nicks and bumps, so that overall, we have a great festival, a viable, attractive, marketable product, and memorable occasion for everyone,” stressed the chair.

Also addressing media at Tuesday’s press conference was marketing coordinator of the CDC Anthony Dennie.

Thanking the media for their support so far, Dennie said that this year, the CDC has moved its daytime launch event from Heritage Square to FLOW’s promenade on Halifax Street.

“Over the years we have been having an event at Heritage Square, but thanks to super platinum sponsors FLOW, we will be moving the event to the FLOW Promenade on Back Street, which we consider to be more central in the scheme of things,” said Dennie.

“….the CDC is looking forward to having big things on the promenade. The Girls’ High School (GHS) Steel Orchestra will be performing and the junior calypso and soca monarch finalists will also be on the promenade, some 22 and counting,” revealed Dennie, who is encouraging the general public to come out and support the event.

He noted also that the parade and celebration train surpassed the CDC’s expectations last year, “so much so that this year we extended the route, as last year we started at top of Heritage Square, but this year we will start at the Cruise Ship Terminal at 6 p.m., and end at Victoria Park”.

The parade will have the traditional monkey band, the Miss SVG girls, the FLOW Sion Hill Steel Orchestra and a number of floats showcasing the various sponsors and winners of competitions in 2015. Dennie is hoping that the trucks from the whistle stops can catch the tail end of the parade as it enters Victoria Park.

The launch event at the Victoria Park begins at 7 p.m. An address will come from chief executive officer (CEO) of the Tourism Authority Glen Beache, while patrons will get a glimpse of a number of the components of Vincy Mas, including the first public speeches and sashing of the 2016 Miss SVG contestants and a view of the various mas bands. There will also be performances by various local artistes, including Rondy ‘Luta’ McIntosh, Delroy ‘Fireman’ Hooper, Shane ‘Hypa’ Husbands and panist Rodney Small.

Patrons will also be entertained during a 10-minute disc jockey session of back-in-time soca music. The new song competitions, calypso, soca and ragga soca competitions will also be held, while a $10 000 prize will be on offer in the FLOW DJ competition.