Road to Vincy Mas heating up

The activities for Vincy Mas 2023 will be in full swing starting today June 30 when Fantastic Friday, the finals of the Calypso competition, gets underway.

The Carnival Development Corporation (CDC) hosted a press conference on Tuesday, June 27 to officially launch the national activities for Vincy Mas which includes the usual events and competitions.

Junior revellers will take over the streets of Kingstown on July 1, with the staging of Junior Carnival at Victoria Park, followed by Junior Panorama which is set for July 2, at the same venue.

President of the Youlou Pan Movement, Rodney Small, disclosed that the pan sides participating in this year’s Junior Panorama have been scaled down from 14 to six as some of the instruments for some pan sides were destroyed during the eruption of La Soufriere Volcano.

Junior Calypso on July 4, closes off the events for the youth after which Steel and Glitter, set for July 6, will showcase the best of the nation’s steel pan offering and the King and Queen of the bands. EVO/ Ragga Soca is set for July 7; Soca Monarch on July 8; Dimanche Gras on July 9; and the carnival closes with Mardi Gras on July 11.

One major change in this year’s festival is the splitting of the Ragga and Power Soca categories, with the former being combined with the EVO party event, while Power Soca remains scheduled for the weekend before Vincy Mas climaxes.

Chairman of the CDC, Ricardo Adams said at the press conference that this year’s competitions are showing increased participation from the younger demographic especially in the Power Soca category.

The CDC will be offering live streaming for five of its events on the VC3 platform, and also on FLOW’s pay-per-view channels.

Starting today, Friday, the CDC said they will be staging their Carnival Hub, a daily ‘lime’ at Heritage Square starting at noon.