Get more young people involved in Crop Over festival

A suggestion is being made to have more young people involved in the Crop Over festival including some aspects of Grand Kadooment.

It’s coming from tent manager and backing vocalist in All Stars Calypso Tent, Eleanor Rice, who said in an interview with Weekend Buzz that by guiding them in this direction, they could learn valuable skills.

“We’ve got to get the young people into wire bending. We’ve got to get them into costume building. We’ve got to give them things in the schools. A Kadooment band can sign up with a school and say, ‘Look, this is what I want y’all to do. I want you to put the feathers onto this’. I know those children will take part and be happy to be a part of an exercise like that,” she said.

Cognisant that some primary school students participate in making costumes for their Junior Kadooment bands, Rice wants it to go further and involve the “young ladies and men at secondary schools to let them be a part of a Kadooment band”.

Rice, like others, is also “glad” that the Party Monarch and Soca Monarch competitions are back on the list of Crop Over events this year.

She said if structured properly, they could be “one of the biggest Crop Over earners on the books for the NCF [National Cultural Foundation]”.

“I am happy that we do have it back. And not only that, it gives the younger men an opportunity to express themselves in song, because a lot of them think they can sing so let us give them the opportunity to sing. Give them something else to concentrate on. Give them something else to do and to look forward to.

“We cannot give that opportunity to the guys who have gone up to prison. We gotta give the ones outside an opportunity to do something that is positive. So, from that angle, I’m happy about both of them,” said the tent manager whose first show for the season is slated for May 31 at St Gabriel’s School.

And while he is not contemplating entering either of the two soca contests, multiple Pic O De Crop monarch Ian iWeb Webster said the events with top prizes of $100 000 do provide a chance for artistes to develop or enhance their stage performance.

He said that “competition-type environment” and the “competition does lend to developing one’s stage craft” “This is quite different than just performing in gigs, because when you have criteria to follow and that kind of thing, it forces you then to look at the craftsmanship and the details and the intricacies of what you’re doing in terms of your art form on stage. You wouldn’t perform the same way for a competition that you would do in a fete, it’s two different types of performances altogether.

“I think it’s good that it’s coming back. I’m happy for the reintroduction of the ‘Pot and happy for the reintroduction of the soca competition, even though I really ain’t sure of my involvement,” said Webster.

(GBM)

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