This year's Crop Over celebrations finished with the annual Kadooment climax. However, Kadooment revellers may have been prepared to face blazing temperature; what they got was non-stop rain showers as a tropical wave hit Barbados. Despite the lighting and thunder a record number of revellers jumped in the Kadooment street party, while thousands more lined the streets to see.
Bag with a Bang!
Literally the crowning achievement to his return to the Kaiso Arena, Stedson "Red Plastic Bag" Wiltshire is the 2007 Cable and Wireless Pic-O-De-Crop Monarch.
Returning after a three-year absence, Bag managed to dethrone last year's king David "Kid Site" Piggott and jump ahead of a strong attack from Anderson "Blood" Armstrong to claim the top spot and his eighth Calypso Monarch title in 25 years.
While many were perhaps betting on a 2-horse race between Kid Site and Bag it was actually Blood who gave Bag the race of his life, Bag only edged out Blood by a minute margin - 0.25 of a point.
Former monarch Kid Site had to settle for third place with 374.25, and De Announcer fourth with 373.25
Soca Junkie Steals it All
Last Friday Mr Dale, who placed second in this year's Party Monarch with the infectious "Soca Junkie," claimed the People's Monarch title with the same song.
The 5th year of the radio contest created by Starcom Network allows Digicel customers to text the names of the artistes and song of their choice to 8683, in the preliminary round.
Dale had even more to sing about when on Monday Kadooment Day "Soca Junkie" won the Road March title. Dale's ragga soca song zoomed past Li'l Rick's "Can't Wait," the song that won the first place at party Monarch. However, Rick claimed third place as well with "Girls Gone Wild."
Mas Band Honours the Fallen
The party was wetter than wet and many revellers made sure to enjoy the conditions. But for many the deaths of those at the Joe's River tragedy on Party Monarch day was not forgotten.
The Jump Kadooment Band hit the streets yesterday in a tribute to Nancy Griffith, one of the six people who died in the July 28 Joe's River accident.
"We needed this. I am glad we decided to do this. Nancy [Griffith] was a big fan of Kadooment. She liked Crop-Over very much; so this is a nice tribute to her," said Paul Johnson, president of Paul's Enterprises Ltd, co-owner of Lucky Horseshoe Restaurant, which employed Nancy as a supervisor.
Johnson said he and his lucky band of masqueraders, made up of employees and friends of the company, were jumping and going to have a good time after having such misfortune in the last two months.
Prior to the tragedy, the Lucky Horseshoe's Warren's location was hit by a fire and the death of their chef in late June.
Nothing to be Outrajed About
The Mas Band Outraje swept this year's Kadooment awards. The band led by Trevor Chase won the Best Band on the Road, Small Band of the Year, BMA 100% Bajan Award, Most Colourful Band and the Best Individual Male awards. Entitled "It Happened in Barbados," the band also won Chase and his daughter Sophia, the King and Queen of the Bands awards.
Other than Chase stalwart Gwyneth Squires won big yet again. She has won the Festival Designer Of The Year title for the 16th time and Large Band Of The Year for the 13th time. Baje International was the largest band on the road with 1, 500 people; they claimed the "Best Fantasy Band" honour with "The Lost Tribe"
Weekly Wrap-Up
Jamaican star Mr Vegas and Trini Iwer George stole the show at the Cockspur Cohobblopot this year as the show failed to pull its regular large crowd because many of this year's popular artistes were contracted to appear elsewhere.
