Catholic band wins Medium Band of Year crown 2012

SASHA HARRINANAN has a very interesting article on the Newsday of Thursday, February 23 2012 entitled Catholic band cops medium band of the year crown.

AFTER only its second year in existence, The Word and Associates — commonly referred to as the Catholic band — copped the 2012 Carnival Medium Band of the Year title for its portrayal

Exodus - the Second Book of the Bible.

Committee member and well-known Carnival Pierrot Grenade character Felix Edinborough, shared his joy with Newsday yesterday, saying, “We were hoping to place in the top five but as the results were called out, we didn’t hear our name and felt so disappointed. Then they said Exodus had won medium band of the year and I was pleasantly surprised. That was such great news,” Ediborough said.

Edinborough added that the $175,000 first prize would help the band pay off debts owing from its 2011 debut, when only 150 people registered to play. The presentation Genesis 1 — Creation copped seventh place in the Medium Band category last year. “We were in serious debt last year because bringing out a band costs lots of money and we didn’t get the numbers we were expecting. The recognition that comes from winning our category is also an incentive for us to keep bringing out creative costumes designed and manufactured right here in Trinidad,” Edinborough said.

Carnival 2012 was also better for “The Word and Associates” in terms of masqueraders the band went from about 150 revellers last year to over 300 this year. Edinborough said he is looking forward to even more people crossing the stage at the Queen’s Park Savannah next year but said the band does not want to grow to an unmanageable size.

“We are enjoying being a medium sized-band and hope to see our numbers grow for Carnival 2013, but we don’t want to get too big. I hope our win will encourage more young people to play with us, once they realise you can have fun while wearing more than the usual bikini and beads costumes. Our win shows you can celebrate Trinidad and Tobago’s culture and creativity in a wholesome way, without the use of alcohol or drugs,” Edinborough declared.

The Catholic band committee member also expressed hope that winning senior medium band of the year 2012 would serve as an incentive to potential masqueraders to register with the band in the future. “Although we doubled our numbers this year, we were hoping for at least 300 people in one section but we ended up with about 100. So hopefully our win will earn the band more recognition and in turn, earlier registration.”

Edinborough added that the band started working on its Carnival 2012 presentation last September with the launch in November, during the limited state of emergency. Not so this time around, as “The Word and Associates” intends to begin work on Leviticus, its 2013 presentation, sometime after Easter.