On Saturday, May 26 at the Victoria Park, 13 students will present their drawings for judging in the first ever Ignyte Secondary Schools’ Costume Design competition.

The secondary schools’ competition, which involves students from form one to three, was organized by the Carnival Bands Association (CBA). The students have submitted designs on the theme ‘Climate Change’ and judges will be looking at creativity, balance of colour, relation of colour to the theme, and presentation.

Ali Cadogan of the CBA told reporters on Wednesday that the competition represents the start of Mas being introduced in schools.

“We notice there is a fall out of artists along the way and we realize that we have Soca, pan and calypso in the schools but we don’t have Mas, so we started this year with a three-year course with designs from all the secondary schools,” said Cadogan.

She said the initiative was done with the consent of the Ministry of Education and over 100 drawings were submitted with 13 being chosen for display tomorrow.

“The judges had a hard task. They worked from 9 am to 3 pm last Saturday in eliminating and it was hard. What you see is 13 out of over 100 and out of this 13, five will receive prizes on Saturday,” said Cadogan.

One of the artists will be rewarded with a Peoples’ Choice Award donated by the National Trust while the top five winners will be rewarded by Vitamalt with trophies and plaques.

Cadogan also revealed that the event where the judging will take place is also a mini concert and children’s event in the day and an adult event in the night. The children’s part of the show will begin at 5 pm and end at 8 pm and the adult show will begin at 9 pm and end at 2 am.

The event will see the performance of two school bands and hear the songs of young and upcoming artistes. The Avenues Dancers will also perform while children can enjoy bouncing castle, face painting and a mini Soca monarch show.

Fourteen Mas bands and 25 Soca artistes will also perform along with two top disc jockeys. The event has received the support of the Carnival Development Corporation (CDC), Xtreme FM, the National Lotteries Authority (NLA), Vitamalt, Coreas Hazell and Posse Snacks.

Entrance is $10 for adults and $5 for children. Vikings Band will provide musical accompaniment for artistes while the event is being coordinated by Rodney Small.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the CDC Ashford Wood said the CDC embraces the drawing competition as the youths are the future.

Wood said that when he looks at the drawings, he is pleased, and he is also pleased that over 100 students took part.

“I am pleased to hear that the competition has been a success and we can look forward to great things going forward. This is very good for Mas because calypso, Soca and pan are big in the schools,” said Wood.

He added that persons are saying that the rural carnivals are just a queen show, a J’Ouvert and a street jump so he is encouraging the CBA to look into this and take up the challenge to use the children and these drawings to move the rural events into Mas.