by crossriverwatch admin
Masta Blasta Band has won the 2012 Carnival Calabar Competition thereby carting home the star prize of N10 million as Band of the Year.
Announcing the results of the competition, the chairman of the State Tourism Commission, Mr. Gabe Onah said the second position was won by Passion 4 Band while the third place was won by Freedom Band and went home with N5 million and N3 million respectively.
Masta Blasta Band also won the Carnival Float, Best Band on the Move, Carnival Spirit, Best Interpretation of the Carnival Theme and Best Costumes and received N2 million respectively.
In the Junior Category, the Band of the year was won Seagull Band, Second was Masta Blasta while Third was Passion Four and each got N3 million, N2 million and N1 million respectively.
Seagull Band won the Carnival Spirit, Best Interpretation of Carnival Theme while Masta Blasta Band won the best costumes.
The Junior King was won by Masta Blasta and Queen by Seagull and each went home with N5 million respectively.
Adult Carnival was a 12 kilometre road show, renamed “Africa’s Biggest Street Party”, while the Children’s Carnival was a four kilometre parade of colours, costumes, styles, music and dance in line with the theme of the 2012 Carnival Calabar which was “Celebrating a New Dawn”.
The Sao Poalo Vai Vai Samba Carnival Band of Brazil added a touch of a South American taste to the Carnival by performing at some adjudication posts to the admiration of the large crowd that thronged there to watch the parade.
In another development, Calabar Municipality has won the Star Prize of N1 million in the Cultural parade competition.
The second position was tied by Bakassi Local Government Area, Ikom LGA and Odukpani LGA which shared the sum of N1.5 million.
Speaking to newsmen before the commencement of the parade, the chairman of the State Carnival Commission, Mr. Gabe Onah disclosed that it has grown in leaps and bounds adding that the cultural content is the soul of the participation.
According to Onah, Governor Liyel Imoke introduced it into the Calabar Festival so that the cultural values and tradition of the people do not go into extinct.
He explained that the six kilometre procession was packaged into the programme as a way of boosting the tourism potentials of Cross River as well as that of the participating states and countries.
The Chairman remarked that while cash prizes are for local government areas in the state, participating states and countries are given honorarium as acknowledgement and encouragement.
Onah further disclosed that the Leventila Steel Band from Trinida and Tobago did a performance at the Junior King and Queen Band competition that added flavor to the Calabar event.
According to him, the command performance was to open the night which brought another unique aspect into it because it was the first time an international band was adding pep to it while the Brazilian Samba band was a new offering.
The Master Blaster Band is one of the biggest carnival bands in the Carnival Calabar, whose membership cuts across the social strata of the society.
Characteristically, it is one of the socially vibrant, all embracing and unrestraint funfair bands an attribute which makes the band to continually cart away the carnival spirit prize every year.
In fact, it is the Bands massive membership that contributed to Carnival Calabar being known as Africa’s Biggest Street Party.
The Band’s colour is a vibrant orange and is headed by Mr. Gershom Bassey as band leader, ably supported by Engr. Eval Imoke and Mr. Gabriel Okulaja as the Band Secretary.
The Band has enjoyed unparalleled success over the last several years and has won the following prizes: Spirit of the Carnival Award in three successive years, Best Queen 2010 Carnival, Best Float 2010 Carnival, Second 2nd Position Children Carnival 2010, 3rd Overall winners of 2010 Carnival amongst others.
Leave feedback about this