SAN­DRA L BLOOD

Young mas­quer­aders, in­clud­ing the reign­ing Ju­nior Queen of Car­ni­val, are bring­ing some his­to­ry to this year’s Ju­nior Car­ni­val com­pe­ti­tions with their all-in­clu­sive pre­sen­ta­tion, Trib­ute to Great Mas­men, from the Clas­six Pro­duc­tions mas camp.

Their por­tray­als are in­spired by de­signs from leg­endary mas­men, in­clud­ing Harold Salde­nah, Wayne Berke­ley, Pe­ter Min­shall, Ja­son Grif­fith, Ir­win Mc Williams, George Bai­ley, Stephen Der­rick, Ed­mund Hart, Ivan Kallicha­ran and Cito Va­lesquez.

“Our band is some­what of a cul­tur­al ed­u­ca­tion oa­sis, a li­brary, a mov­ing uni­ver­si­ty of sorts. This year we will cel­e­brate our mas leg­ends, de­sign­ers and ar­ti­sans who left an in­deli­ble mark on Car­ni­val stages,” ex­plained Vanes­sa Forde, founder and di­rec­tor of the band.

“The leg­ends will be ho­n­oured through cos­tume and per­for­mance. It’s not just about Car­ni­val, but fos­ter­ing a sense of pride and cul­tur­al ap­pre­ci­a­tion among our youth. Through our mas camp, we bring the art of mas-mak­ing to life, and neigh­bour­ing schools are part of the process.”

Forde, daugh­ter of a for­mer mas-mak­er Hugh Forde, who worked for the six-time Band of the Year win­ner Harold Salde­nah, has al­ways been in­flu­enced and in­trigued by her fa­ther and dreamt of keep­ing mas tra­di­tions alive.

In 2003, the for­mer St Fran­cois Girls’ Col­lege teacher reg­is­tered Clas­six Pro­duc­tions, a ju­nior mas band lo­cat­ed at 1 Suf­folk Lane, Bel­mont. Her first band, I Once Had A Dream, de­signed by Ran­dal “Randy” Halfhide, won the Small Band of the Year ti­tle.

The band ex­pand­ed to medi­um, then large and un­der de­sign­ers Halfhide, Mike John­son, Gre­go­ry Loreg­nard, Shel­don Clemen­dore, Do­minic Fields, Robert Fred­er­ick, and Ger­ard Barnes, it has been con­sis­tent­ly placed in the top three in com­pe­ti­tions and cur­rent­ly holds 49 Band of the Year ti­tles.

In 2022, the or­gan­i­sa­tion re­ceived the Hum­ming­bird Medal (Sil­ver) for ‘keep­ing the cul­ture alive.’ Forde said they are not­ed for their fam­i­ly-ori­ent­ed and ed­u­ca­tion­al ap­proach in ad­di­tion to pro­duc­ing award-win­ning cos­tumes.

Al­though still await­ing spon­sors, the band has in­vest­ed in the com­mu­ni­ty by pro­vid­ing cos­tumes to un­der­priv­i­leged and spe­cial needs chil­dren, as well as those from mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties. Every year stu­dents from the School for the Deaf and oth­er de­serv­ing in­sti­tu­tions ben­e­fit from free cos­tumes.

To cov­er costs for pro­duc­ing the band, brand­ed t-shirts, cups and bags are on sale, and there are af­ter-work Fri­day af­ter­noon fundrais­ing limes at the mas camp.

For fur­ther in­for­ma­tion con­tact (868) 782-0903, or 759-8936.