EDITOR, The Tribune.

Grateful if you would publish the following ramblings of a troubled junkanoo fan.

It is obvious that the junkanoo groups have lost their creativity by the way they keep regurgitating past themes which do not require much thought or research and which are easy for them to reproduce. There needs to be one central theme which would make the groups use some innovation as to how they present the theme. This will also make the job of the judges easier by judging apples with apples

Talking about judging the junkanoo parades, there is never a parade when one or more groups do not complain when they are not judged to be the winner. The JCNP nor its management team should have absolutely nothing to do with the judging process. This ought to be left to a completely independent body.

If the NJC is to take on the expanded role envisioned by the Minister, he must remove all those members of the Committee who are still actively involved with a group

It is clear that both the Music Makers and the Prodigal Sons are miles behind the other four A Category groups in numbers, in talent and in capability. These two groups should be placed in the B Category, which ought not be considered a demotion and which will make for a very competitive B Category.

Having regard to attempts to pull off a “Twelve Days of Christmas” junkanoo festival, the expanded B Category will then have the muscle to deserve a date in the junkanoo calendar for a parade exclusively for that Category

I would think that the Commissioner of Police ought to be insisting that the junkanoo parades be removed from Bay St. Providing security for the parades on Bay St must be a nightmare for the police with all of the entrances onto Bay St. The National Stadium is self-contained and should make the police’s job much easier to execute.

The parade management team must find the means to control the photographers during junkanoo. They block paying customers’ view of the groups and even though all of them have the long zoom lens they feel they must gather directly in front of the groups. We must bring more discipline and order to the process.

We must also bring more order to the chaotic way in which the junkanoo results are announced. How could the A category results be announced the evening of the parade, but the B category groups had to wait almost a week for their results. Maybe if this duplicity had not occurred the tragedy in Fox Hill may have been averted.

I suggest strongly that the results should be withheld until the first weekend after New Year’s morning parade when a proper awards ceremony could be planned much like the Academy Awards or one of the many awards shows held early in the year in the US.

If the results are withheld and an award ceremony planned soon after, this should encourage more people to purchase tickets for the event. The tickets ought to be kept at a minimum cost and the event should be paid for by the government or from the proceeds of the junkanoo ticket sales.

ERIC GARDNER

Nassau,

January 6, 2014.