And Still I Rise

Miss SVG :Aviar Charles
New song :Queen B
Ragga Soca :Skarpyon
Miss Carival: Miss St Kitts Iantavian Queeley
Calypso Monarch: Maxwell "Tajo" Francis
Soca Monarch: Fireman Hooper
Panorama:Sion Hill Euphonium
Junior Queen:Renisha Rose's portrayal of Alice in Wonderland from Player's International's production "At The Movies
Junior King:Jelani Niles portraying Tsunami from Blondie Bird and friends "Nature's Fury
Queen of the Bands:Jenilee Glasgow portraying Snow White and the Seven dwarfs from Players International
Junior Panorama: Girls'High School
Section of the Bands: Avatar by Player's Intl
Individual of the Year: Avalanche portrayed by Semone Richardson from Blondie Bird's Nature's Fury
Junior Band of the Year: Blondie Bird and Friends
Junior Calypso Monarch: Primary School:Kristina “Singing Kristie” Christopher
Junior Calypso Monarch: Secondary School:Shade Barker
Junior Soca Monarch: Ottis “Flipper” Cain
Band of the Year: Nature's Fury by Blondie Bird
Road March: Gao's Sheep

Highlights

Skinny Fabulous: He infused new life into the festivities with his Coney Island style carnival complete with clowns,bouncing castles, magicians and cartoon characters like Dora, Elmo and Sponge Bob. The overflowing Victoria Park in rainy conditions showed how much the event captured the imagination of children and adults.

Tajo: Strong lyrics,good diction and a not too shabby voice combined to produce a masterful performance which saw him lifting the crown for the first time.Those of us who follow Fancy's winning performances at the Carolling Competition know that Tajo is the man behind their compositions. Well done Tajo!

Skarpyon: He demonstrated his versatility by competing in all 4 ""calypso" Competitions.His second place in the Calypso finals should put to rest the notion that persons like himself and Bomani's style of singing does not belong in a Calypso competition.

GAO. The Son of Man returned to competition after a 10 yr absence and stole calypso lovers hearts with his monster hits "Noonie Juice" and "Sheep".

Panorama: Starlift threw down the gauntlet and Sion Hill Euphonium responded by upping their game to play their way to first place.

Lowlights

The Soca Monarch show is one of the most highly anticipated and best attended shows on the carnival calender. However this year's version brought with it a Gaza/Gully type element.The camps/fans of the two biggest names in the competition brought some unseemly behaviour that needs to be quickly stamped out. A class/status aspect is creeping in with one camp labelled the other as hooligan while claiming sophistication for theirs. Along with this elitism is an introduction of the town vs country element where to like Fireman means you are from country and vice versa. Sadly Soca monarch seems to be simply a competition between Fireman and Skinny Fabulous with the others just there to make up numbers. Ps can the artistes just sing and lessen the theatrics?

Panorama : An electric malfunction that saw the cancellation of the Panorama finals being rescheduled to the Dimanche Gras.

Crowd participation:Low crowd participation at shows like Dimanche Gras. Is it that the shows are just too long? Kiddies carnival had the smallest crowds I've seen in a long time. Did Uncle Skinny steal the show's thunder?

Smutty Songs: I like a double entendre as much as anyone but some of this year's offerings left nothing to the imagination.Have the artistes run out of creativity? Snapshot anyone?

Until next year, that was Vincy Mas.