Pe­ter Ray Blood

The Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Bands As­so­ci­a­tion (NC­BA) is adamant about en­forc­ing Rules 2.1 and 2.4 for Car­ni­val com­pe­ti­tion which clear­ly state that all mas­quer­aders must be 18 years old and over. The first 2015 com­pe­ti­tion where this rule will be test­ed is the tra­di­tion­al mas pa­rade takes place an­nu­al­ly every Car­ni­val Sun­day from Pica­dil­ly Greens to Adam Smith Square.

Ronald Al­fred, leader of Orig­i­nal Whip­mas­ter Jab Jab band, con­firmed that his band was pe­nalised last Car­ni­val Tues­day. He said: "I pulled my sev­en chil­dren out the band be­fore we got on the road last year and had no chil­dren in the band in the com­pe­ti­tion. I was told that chil­dren could pa­rade on the road but not on the per­for­mance stage.

"I start­ed play­ing this mas with my grand­fa­ther and fa­ther as a child. My younger son who is ten has been parad­ing with me. This is tra­di­tion­al mas and tra­di­tion­al mas is some­thing that is passed down through the gen­er­a­tions. If I didn't learn from my fa­ther, when he got sick I would not have been able to con­tin­ue tra­di­tion­al mas. It would have died."

The vet­er­an tra­di­tion­al mas­quer­ad­er added: "The in­tro­duc­tion of this rule is a re­al blow to tra­di­tion­al mas which is very much fam­i­ly ori­ent­ed and is in­ter­gen­er­a­tional by na­ture. In­deed tra­di­tion­al mas sur­vives be­cause it is hand­ed from one gen­er­a­tion to the next. This rule there­fore threat­ens the par­tic­i­pa­tion of most of the bands who take part every year."

June Sankar, who has been pro­duc­ing a Dame Lor­raines this past decade and has rep­re­sent­ed the coun­try abroad as this char­ac­ter, said: "Un­der­stand that this is not a NCC (Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee) rule, it is a NC­BA rule. It is a rule and we mas­quer­aders wish­ing to par­tic­i­pate have to fol­low it.

"At the nos­tal­gia pa­rade on Car­ni­val Sun­day morn­ing I have usu­al­ly tak­en my ju­nior mas­quer­aders on the road with us for the past five years.

"I find the rule is a bit harsh but we have to fol­low it as the NC­BA is the or­gan­i­sa­tion which runs the pa­rade and sets the rules of par­tic­i­pa­tion. If we want the chil­dren to con­tin­ue in tra­di­tion­al mas af­ter we're dead and gone they are now be­ing pre­vent­ed from par­tic­i­pat­ing and learn­ing about the tra­di­tion­al mas."

In the face of protes­ta­tions from tra­di­tion­al mas stal­warts, NC­BA chair­man David Lopez re­mained un­phased and fixed on the rule. On Fri­day he said: "The NC­BA runs mas com­pe­ti­tions, I am the chair­man of the NC­BA and rules must be im­ple­ment­ed to gov­ern all pa­rades and com­pe­ti­tions. The rule is clear and ex­plic­it. We have com­pe­ti­tions for ju­nior mas­quer­aders that are sep­a­rate and apart from events in­volv­ing adult mas­quer­aders.

"On one hand there are peo­ple want­i­ng mas­quer­aders un­der the age of 18 to par­tic­i­pate in pa­rades and com­pe­ti­tions, on Car­ni­val days as well, with all the rev­el­ry and al­co­hol–and at the same time, al­so want bans and pro­hi­bi­tion for mas­quer­aders un­der the age of 18 to be im­ple­ment­ed."

An­oth­er mas­quer­aders speak­ing anony­mous­ly said: "This is the on­ly part of Car­ni­val that is tru­ly per­for­mance art any more. Those who play tra­di­tion­al mas should be val­ued as per­for­mance artistes, with each por­tray­al hav­ing its own dance, some al­so have their own songs. I think this is a crit­i­cal point that is com­plete­ly lost to­day. This pa­rade should be a show­case of tra­di­tion­al per­for­mance art. It should be de­vel­oped, pro­mot­ed and val­ued as such.

"Those charged with the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for run­ning Car­ni­val are op­press­ing the old­est tra­di­tions in Car­ni­val through these rules and reg­u­la­tions, very low prize mon­ey, and the dif­fi­cul­ty of ac­cess­ing judg­ing points on Car­ni­val Tues­day due to the dom­i­na­tion on the road by the mega bands.

"In short, tra­di­tion­al Car­ni­val mas­quer­aders are in a bat­tle against the su­per­struc­ture of Car­ni­val for the sur­vival of this most valu­able as­pect of our cul­ture."