Let me begin by saying this is MY experience, MY thoughts and MY personal space to vent. This is MY pulpit, forum and soapbox. Should you agree or disagree and decide to leave a comment, feel free to do so but do so respectfully. Although this space is included in the world wide web, it is MY space and I will not tolerate disrespect whether directed to a person who has commented or myself, your comment will be deleted and you will be blocked. With that being said, lehwe go!
Being the last band on the road definitely has it's perks and I enjoyed myself to the max because once you have your family/friends in the midst, yuh more than good to go. This year however, I must say that the Miami Broward Carnival committee did some garbage that I simply must get off my chest. I mean, it's been festering since jouvert morning, that was since the 10th of October and I fine it's time.
As I listened to the plan of the committee for jouvert, I was admittedly confused. Not confused with what they were planning to do but with how the plan would actually be executed. Should the plan had been for a jouvert with only trucks, the plan would have worked out perfectly however a jouvert event has this complex animal called PEOPLE. LOTS of PEOPLE attend jouvert and with the thousands of PEOPLE added to the "plan" it just would not have worked, I knew that going in and it's a shame that the masqueraders suffer.
Let's begin with the parking.
When coming to parking all I could do was shake my head at the level phuckery. It was on an all time high that Saturday morning. Knowing that my band is always last I am never in a rush to get to the park but when I got there, the changes sickened me. (Sorry, I am a creature of habit).
First, I was instructed to park on the left side of where the traffic was headed. Second, I was told that the driver (me) was the only one allowed into the parking area and 3. The price for parking had changed in the matter of 4 minutes. Well, I had news for the bad news bearers. I was 1. NOT going to separate from my crew. They were going to sit in the car right with me. 2. I was carrying almost 1,000 lbs (hugely exaggerated) of paint and powder for the band and could not carry it from the general parking lot to the jouvert truck by myself nor was I making an attempt to and 3. How is it the price changed from $10 to some other price that I can not remember in the matter of 4 minutes? Don't get me wrong, paying for parking wasn't my issue. The issue for me was paying what people just
felt like charging me. There was no sign, no little chit, no nothing indicating that money had been paid aside from some fool telling me it was one price and within 10 feet another clown giving me another. Who? Not me. Not my money! I continued to drive and I am somehow always blessed to always be in the right place at the right time and ended up directly in front of Mario Zamora. I told him about all the paint and powder in my truck and explained that parking so far from our jouvert truck would cause a problem with transporting it especially if my crew had to separate from me. Just like that, access was granted and I swear, I felt like like a Hebrew when Moses parted the Red Sea. Could you imagine small me trying to tote hundreds of plastic bottles of paint and powder inside the park?
Entrance to the park.
So now we're waiting at the front gate to get inside. It felt like watching paint dry. There was no need for the wait. Nothing was going on. No trucks were blocking the front gate and they certainly had enough man power to allow vehicles inside. There were men just about everywhere doing absolutely nothing but making people miserable and stopping them for no reason and without explanation. That led me to believe that all the waiting was deliberate. If it wasn't deliberate, why not give people an explanation for why they were being held up? I understand that everyone has a job to do but in my experience with dealing with crowds, it is far easier to get a positive response and even some corporation from people who have an understanding of what's going on. Maybe, just maybe this wasn't deliberate but like I said before these are
my feelings, and this is
my blog space to voice them. If I were given some sort of explanation I would not have had to come up with one of my own. Anyway while still waiting outside the front gate, I saw members of both Dutty Pleasures Jouvert and Mudd Maddness Jouvert at the gate toting food back and forth to their band and clearly thinking that they were mad to be doing all of that in the hot sun. I mean, who in their right mind would want to
tote food and to so many people? Ha ha stay calm, I'm getting there soon. We were finally let into the park. Mind you, nothing had changed. There were no vehicles being searched or let into the park, no tickets or hand bands being checked, no money being counted, I mean NOTHING changed but alas, we were allowed into the park. Once we got in and found our truck it was smooth sailing.....until people got hungry....
Denial at the gate.
Once the truck, music, paint, powder and liquor started to flow it was only natural that people get hungry. I was so excited to get into the gate that I didn't realize that the staff at the front gate was not allowing food trucks for the bands to enter the park. Again,
(well, maybe not where's the food)
Thank the Lord my truck was parked at the front gate so we could just load it up and drive the food to it's destination because that was LEVEL assness! Aye, I cuss so stink my little high was gone. Let's do the math. There were 20 jouvert bands. Each band had a minimum masquerader requirement of 200 I believe. I'm not the jouvert godmother. Now I know for a FACT that there were 3 bands with over 1,000 people and 2 with over 500 but for argument sake, we will stick with 200 people in 20 bands. That is 4,000 people. HOW THE ASS DID THEY EXPECT 4,000 PEOPLE TO EAT?! McDONALDS FROM THE CORNER? JOY'S? NO... Couldn't be, because they came up with an asinine ticket system for entry for 2015 which meant NO RE-ENTRY. So maybe they thought VENDORS? Nah, vendors couldn't feed that many people. So how did they expect for the masqueraders to eat lunch?
Did they just not care?
Did they expect for the masqueraders to only eat breakfast? They did provide wonderful tents for each band to distribute their breakfast but hello....what happen to our lunch? We are Caribbean people and can comber-squat anywhere an eat but if the food isn't present, what exactly are we eating?!
Did they not think that lunch was included in these jouvert packages?
Did they just not think that far?
Did they not care?
I have so many questions. None of which will ever be answered. Drinking people need to eat ESPECIALLY at jouvert. John Pubic may or not believe it but people hit the drinks truck harder for jouvert than for carnival, food is paramount!!
Although I enjoyed myself in Something Jouvert, I walked through all the bands to hail friends and show my face. For the most part people were enjoying themselves but were stagnant. I thought this problem was confined to my band as we were last and had to wait on 19 bands to clear the way but no. The reality was that there were TOO MANY BANDS INSIDE THAT PARK. The bands weren't flowing and the whole dynamic of the jouvert got me well annoyed. 20 bands means 20 trucks. There just isn't enough room! Jouvert is a time to break away not jump in one spot like Shadow! Allowing 20 bands in that little park for 6 hours was the epitome of greed and something needs to be done cause THAT was jammishness! Who knows, maybe the reason the food trucks weren't allowed in the park was because there were too many truck in there already!!
I expect to get cuss by a couple people well but it is what it is. It have we, the masqueraders who partake in the carnival for the love of our culture feeling upset. Remember, it has many people who connect with me to voice their opinions. Many of which rather stay anonymous but do share the same sentiment as I. While many people are thinking about lining their pockets the masqueraders are all beginning to see the greed. Greed on who's part is an entirely separate blog but let's see if jouvert will reach 30 bands next year.....smh. Bless.
