The preparation period was short this year. With a minimal distance between Christmas and Carnival, not many islanders managed to drum up the funds and the enthusiasm to participate in the island’s 51st edition of the celebration, nevertheless this Sunday’s production of the Children’s Grand Annual Parade was a respectable showing of creativity and pizzazz. Mrs. Carnival 2004, the most senior of the beauty queens seemed to be quite pleased at the head of the parade, during her second cadence as Carnival royalty. We had no time this year to elected her successor . . .
WIZZKIDS. Kimberly da Silva, the island’s Children’s Carnival Queen rolled through at the opening of the parade with her group Wizzkids, put together by Claudius Phillips, Aruba’s perennial Calypso King and band leader of OREO. The Wild West inspired tykes were entertained by Lord Cachete, a musical enfant-terrible who lives in Holland year round and just visits the island for the Carnival Season. Skinny and crazed Cachete is Carnival’s clown and jester rolled in one. He gave himself a far-out hair style, shaving Digicel, the sponsor’s name on his pate and dyeing it green. The kids loved his antics, his gyrating dance moves and elastic face and chopped and woked the Coyote Saloon all the way from the start of the parade to the finish in town . . .
THE DANCE. Mighty Hippy, in real life a responsible government employee with a musical background by the name of Ruben Trappenberg, won the cut-throat Road March contest last week when he out chopped all competitors and woked the crown. His song, composed by band leader Kevin James, last year’s winner, is as non PC as they come, mocking everything Chinese from accent to cooking techniques. It works in Aruba. It’s OK. I hear reports that even the Chinese community likes it. Anyway, the song was played over and over at the Lighting Parade and at the Grand Annual Children’s Parade and will probably also receive the Road Jam title at the end of the season for the public’s choice, the road favorite. The dance challenges revelers to gyrate their pelvic while executing karate air chops left and right, then finishing with a high side kick. Another verse requires pelvic thrusts and rotations - left, right, north, south, while piously pressing both hands together against each other. The Miss Mitzi dance academy would be proud. The Shall we Dance sequel is considering its inclusion in the next Jelo/Gere production . . .
THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. The Carnival Queens found support in unexpected places. The business community and the Chamber of Commerce created a platform for them for the official SAC float. SAC, a non profit foundation in charge of making Carnival happen showcased the queens against a commercial background. Unusual, but creative!
COOKS IN THE KITCHEN. A local racing organization Don Flip featured a group of diminutive cooks. Fiesta den Cushina entertained by the New Climaxx Band was also sponsored by La Fama a very traditional local bakery. Their hotdog road piece and their balloon dogs were fun and inexpensive . . .
KINDERGARTEN ON PARADE. School teachers ventured out with their kids dressed in the colors of the rainbow. Within the group a few of them presented the old Aruba with a nostalgic twist, the farmers of yesteryears and their crops. Put together last minute those cunucu beauties had fun on the road. The baby in the pumpkin was especially cute . . .
ANCIENT GREECE. Perhaps the most luxurious group searched antiquity for inspiration. Aruba’s Minister of Tourism could be seen pushing his nephew’s Grecian temple. Sound & More introduced the kids to Freddy Mercury’s We Are the Champions. Olympic emblems, gods and goddesses were all shimmered in the sun . . .
CHAMPAGNE. The famed Carnival group, probably in its 5th or 6th year, presented favorite Birthday Themes such as Spiderman, Swan Lake, Tinker Bell and Sponge Bobs Square Pants. It was a large group with many colorful sub-groups, very nicely done. Organizer Linchie Merryweather and Joselyne Croes share the passion for Carnival and each year present the public with amazingly creative and luxurious spectacles with in the Children’s parade, the Lighting Parade and the two Grand Parades . . .
NOORD FLAUNTS ITS DIVERSITY. The Noord Carnival, in its 40th edition – it started very small with a parade through the district main arteries – celebrated this important mile stone by going all out. The wealthy district presented a nice parade in Noord on Saturday and a large contingent of kids in the parade on Sunday. The theme, Indians, shuffling with the Creators and Might Whitey – he is incidentally an insurance broker during working-hours and an aspiring Calypsonian at Carnival highlighted feathers, teepees, pint size chiefs and posses and hinted at a bright future with deep ancestral roots . . .
TOP KIDS OF 95.4FM. A Radio station from Santa Cruz launched Top Kids interpreting the station’s logo, a sun, in feathers and glitter. Director Edmund Croes reports over 160 kids, being pushed and ushered by 80 adults. We will be back next year, he promised. Tsunami, the band, kept the music hot and steady . . .
EMERALD PRINCESS. No doubt the prettiest costume, Linette do Nacimiento pushed a body piece as the Emerald Princess designed by Mirelva Hasham. The kid shows great promise as a future Miss Aruba . . .
