SAN­DRA L BLOOD

blood­l­sandy@gmail.com

Mul­ti-Kid­dies Car­ni­val Band of the Year and reign­ing first-place hat-trick Red Cross and St James Car­ni­val win­ner, Jam­Jay Kids Pro­duc­tions (JKP), will be bring­ing its cre­ative heat once again next year with its pre­sen­ta­tion, Ole Mas New Show: The Jam­Jay Spec­ta­cle.

In the small cat­e­go­ry, the band will com­prise nine sec­tions, 65 mas­quer­aders rang­ing from nine months to 17 years, and four in­di­vid­u­als.

Led and chiefly co­or­di­nat­ed by cos­tume de­sign­er and band lead­ers Kali­fa Dun­can Mc­Far­lane and her hus­band, Brent Mc­Far­lane, the band en­tered the fold less than five years ago and has de­scend­ed up­on every ma­jor chil­dren’s com­pe­ti­tion venue.

“JKP is a vi­brant fam­i­ly, com­mu­ni­ty-fo­cused chil­dren’s car­ni­val mas band ded­i­cat­ed to pre­serv­ing and cel­e­brat­ing the rich cul­ture of Car­ni­val for the younger gen­er­a­tion,” stat­ed the Mc­Far­lanes. “We fo­cus on cre­ativ­i­ty and youth en­gage­ment, and pro­vid­ing a safe, joy­ful en­vi­ron­ment for chil­dren to ex­pe­ri­ence the mag­ic of the fes­ti­val. We’ve con­sis­tent­ly brought high-en­er­gy, beau­ti­ful­ly craft­ed pre­sen­ta­tions to the stage, and have es­tab­lished a proud tra­di­tion of ex­cel­lence and com­mu­ni­ty im­pact in kid­dies’ car­ni­val.”

Dun­can Mc­Far­lane said they be­gan in 2024 and are in­ten­tion­al about keep­ing cul­tur­al ed­u­ca­tion and the arts at the fore­front, with chil­dren at the cen­tre, to en­sure the art form stays rel­e­vant and alive. Hence the rea­son for their post-Car­ni­val cos­tume par­ties and East­er brunch.

“Our in­au­gur­al pre­sen­ta­tion, Se­crets of an En­chant­ed For­est Where Mag­i­cal Crea­tures Re­side, earned first and sec­ond places across the board for every com­pe­ti­tion in­clud­ing Red Cross, St James, UCIC, Tamarind Square, Down­town, etc.

This was re­peat­ed in the 2nd year 2025 with Birds of Par­adise with much ic­ing on the cake by al­so cop­ping the win­ning ti­tle in the open cat­e­go­ry at NCC TTC­BA, and this year, our third, for Umo­ja the Beau­ty of Africa and Their Tribes, we walked away De­sign­er of the Year at Red Cross af­ter plac­ing 1st and at the St James com­pe­ti­tion, won Best African Theme.

“Deeply-root­ed in com­mu­ni­ty up­lift­ment, apart from car­ni­val/cos­tume, we co­or­di­nate ma­jor char­i­ty ini­tia­tives such as our back-to-school book bag do­na­tion dri­ve for a lo­cal chil­dren’s home and chil­dren from dif­fer­ent ar­eas.”

For next year, Ole Mas New Show: The Jam­Jay Spec­ta­cle brings mas to the cir­cus.

The sec­tions are Ba­by Doll, de­signed by Na­dine Charles/Glen Thomp­son; Pier­rot Grenade (Re­nee Yarley); Fan­cy Sailors (Anas­ta­sia Milling­ton); Stick Fight­ers (Nightin­gale Fash­ion); and Mid­night Rob­ber, Min­strel, Moko Jumbie, Blue Dev­ils and Bur­ro­keets (Kali­fa Dun­can Mc­Far­lane).

Head­quar­tered up­stairs at Sim­plic­i­ty Plaza on Mur­ray Street, Wood­brook, the band was con­cep­tu­alised by Dun­can Mc­Far­lane. It will present a daz­zling cir­cus-themed spec­ta­cle that bridges the nos­tal­gic el­e­ments of tra­di­tion­al mas with the vi­brant, the­atri­cal en­er­gy of a mod­ern cir­cus show.

It was cre­at­ed to spark ul­ti­mate joy, colour and ex­cite­ment for the chil­dren af­ter a pe­ri­od of grand an­tic­i­pa­tion.

All pieces and back­packs are made by the Mc­Far­lanes, their chil­dren and chil­dren from the neigh­bour­hood. Wire-bend­ing is done by Richard Lera, as­sist­ed by Patrick Mills, while the seam­stress is Na­dine Charles.

The band was launched on June 28.