Real Mas Dominica Carnival 2009 Opening Pics

So I went to town (Roseau) on Saturday to check out the parade and opening activities. Man before I blink it was over. Anyways I got some pics of the parade itself and shots of the pageant contestants, officials and performers. The event was held at Festival City AKA the Pottersville Savannah. Though it started on time, patrons had to wait for mass at the nearby St. Alphonsus Catholic Church to end.

One thing I had to mention though. I noticed that (apart from LIME's obvious presence) most of the sponsors in the parade were alcohol companies: Heinekin, Hennessy, Kubuli, Carib. Now I am not saying that they should not sponsor Carnival, after all I'm sure business is very good for them at this time, so they should give back to the community. But I did not see many businesses with a strong presence in the parade. Thats something to think about!


Oh yeah and one more thing. Before I left the park, the flagwavers were performing and I was just like amazed that adults would let these young girls perform the way they did. Those girls came on stage and I'm hearing "when you want it fasta, Imma give you fasta/when you want it deeper Imma give you deeper" and putting some serious wine on the stage. Now me, I am close to 30 I can go in the club and wine deeper and harder and fasta till the cows come home. But when I see an 8 year old, doing that on a stage and other kids looking at that, guess who I blame? The ADULT who not only chaperoned her but more than likely taught her that it was OK to dance like that. I believe having a group like flag wavers is a fantastic idea. It is an opportunity for young girls to congregate and do something fun, of course its great payback to perform on stage at carnival time. I do believe that the organizers of these groups should see it as an opportunity to instill good values into these girls, to teach them to be creative (trust me I could have pick a wicked hot playlist with no profanity or age-inappropriate lyrics), and to represent themselves with quality and class! Anyways that is my two cents..and believe me I saw a number of persons with mouth open, shaking their heads just like me....yeah so go and check your pictures now! enough talking....