Two commemorative magazines documenting carnival in Dominica are set to be released shortly.
Deputy Chairman of the Dominica Festivals Committee (DFC) told a press conference at the DFC office Wednesday that a commemorative issue of Domnitchen magazine will focus on carnival while the DFC is working on producing a commemorative magazine that will showcase the 2010 carnival queen contestants.
“With the limited time that we have available we’re doing two souvenir magazines – one that is a private activity by Miss Giselle Laurent called the Domnitchen magazine, a special on carnival this year, and we’ll do a commemorative magazine on the queen show and trying to get the public to know about the contestants for this year’s carnival queen competition,” Esprit explained.
Meanwhile, the deputy chairman is satisfied with the outcome of the recently held carnival opening parade.
“I think we have set the bar so far and it is for us to continue … the success of carnival will depend entirely on the level of participation of the Dominican public. Carnival is not about DFC or the Calypso Association or LIME. It is about the involvement of all of us together so I think we should take our cue from what we saw last Saturday – the level of involvement, the passion, the high energy of the revelers which made for an interesting opening of carnival,” he said.
He told the media that the DFC intends to focus on keeping the momentum in the weeks ahead of Carnival 2010.
The carnival official reminded the public that there will also be carnival activities outside of Roseau.
“I know that this weekend there will be a couple openings for carnival or at least some activities… in Portsmouth on Saturday, in Mahaut the Festival Committee will be launching contestants for their queen show on Sunday afternoon at the Rodney’s Rock festivity that happens from 5 o’clock … We expect carnival in other parts: Salisbury, we have La Plaine, and St. Joseph and other communities around Dominica. We’ll give you other information on those carnivals as times goes by, but just to make you fully aware there are other carnivals taking part around Dominica,” Esprit said.
Representatives of First Caribbean International Bank (FCIB) and Dominica Electricity Services (DOMLEC) were also present at this morning’s press conference. Both institutions are sponsors of carnival queen contestants.
DOMLEC is sponsoring carnival queen contestant Kristelle Fagan; she is Miss Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). This is not the first time DOMLEC has sponsored a queen pageant contestant.
“This is not the first time we’re sponsoring a queen if memory serves me right. We’ve sponsored Samantha Doctrove … and Samantha did bring home the crown to DOMLEC, so we’re looking this year for Kristelle to bring the crown to us. She has a very good team behind her and we at DOMLEC have also setup a team to work with Kristelle and her chaperone to ensure that she performs her best on the night of the show,” DOMLEC Spokesperson Adina Bellot-Valentine stated.
Meanwhile, FCIB’s Business Support Officer Glenna Williams said it is not the first time her place of employment has contributed to carnival. However, they normally work in conjunction with other sponsors.
FCIB is the sponsor of Amy Polydore who is also employed with the bank as a client services officer.
“FCIB is committed to supporting culture in all ways,” Williams added.
This week FCIB donated a new drum set to the Steel Vision Band of Soufriere, and made financial contributions to the Purple Dragon Karate Group and a section of the Convent High School’s Creation carnival band – Land Sky.
Clarissa Nicholls of Carib Territory is the only contestant short of a sponsor. Marcia Baptiste is partly sponsored by Dr. Jeffrey Lafond, Shama St. Hilaire is partly sponsored by Ross University School of Medicine, Valdie DeJean is sponsored by the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Dana Augustine’s sponsor is Scotia Bank.
Come on people, let’s find her a sponsor. She is ageless, timeless, lace and fineness; her beauty and elegance. Her comedy, her raphsody, her symphony and at play. She is every school boy’s dream. She is Celtic, United, please pardon my grammar. So I have decided she’s the best thing I have ever seen. Her ad-lib lines are well rehearsed and my heart cries out for more.