Brent Zephyrine

Ari­ma's Bor­ough An­niver­sary Cel­e­bra­tions got off to a late start yes­ter­day morn­ing as rains took a se­vere toll on the J'Ou­vert turnout. So said Coun­cil­lor for Ari­ma Cen­tral Clin­ton Jen­nings as he point­ed the fin­ger at bad weath­er for "keep­ing back" sev­er­al oth­er bands which had been sched­uled to pa­rade. "Just three bands came out on the streets Sat­ur­day morn­ing around 7 am. They were the Hard Hat Crew, the Band Pal­lang and the Mau­si­ca Coun­cil Youth Group," he said. Sec­re­tary to the Ari­ma May­or (Ghas­san Youseph) Don­na Pa­trong said the Bor­ough's bud­get did not cater for a com­pet­i­tive pa­rade so the street fes­ti­vals were pure­ly par­tic­i­pa­to­ry this year. "It is not a com­pe­ti­tion be­cause our bud­get did not per­mit us to have one, so we of­fered the bands an ap­pear­ance fee and they were ex­pect­ed to come out with no less than 25 per­sons each," she said.

Five mu­sic trucks hired by the Bor­ough Coun­cil, ac­com­pa­nied "some 12 bands" dur­ing the Pa­rade of the Bands which kicked off at 3 pm yes­ter­day. Among some of the bands that pa­rad­ed were: Tri­ni Rev­ellers, Pa­tri­cia & Friends, Bai­ley & As­so­ciates, Jucyn Crew, Ac­ca­di­an Sports Club, San­ta Rosa Carib Com­mu­ni­ty, Kim Pierre & As­so­ciates, Gre­go­ry Wong & As­so­ciates, Trip­ple T, The Band Pal­lang, Mau­si­ca Coun­cil Youth Group and Mal­abar Vil­lage Coun­cil & Rad As­so­ciates. The two-lap route which be­gan at the Ari­ma Am­phithe­atre, pro­ceed­ed along Wood­ford Street across Broad­way in front of the po­lice sta­tion then on to Queen Street and Hol­lis Av­enue, re­spec­tive­ly.