For the Junkanoo Summer Festival, major Junkanoo groups will leave the shacks for Arawak Cay for a spectacular, fun-filled, rhythmic cultural competition over four weekends in July, to be followed by the Goombay Summer Festival in August. (Photo: Ministry of Tourism)

The street festival designed at capturing the competitiveness and excitement of Junkanoo kicks off a two-month run of the most anticipated time of the year tomorrow. First up in on Saturdays in July will be Junkanoo Summer, followed by the Goombay Summer Festival in August.

For Junkanoo Summer, major Junkanoo groups will leave the shacks for Arawak Cay for a spectacular, fun-filled rhythmic cultural competition over four weekends.

A mixture of thunderous music, explosions of colorful, eye-catching costumes and magnetic choreography will be the vocal point of the Junkanoo Summer festival that begins tomorrow.

Junkanoo Summer is a non-stop street party with music, culture, food and fun for the entire family between 12 noon and 12 midnight.

Electrifying competitions will be the focus of each festival day.

Week one of the competition will feature the music; week two, Saturday, July 9 will be taken off for independence celebrations; week three (Saturday, July 16) is a dance off with the choreography competition; week four (Saturday, July 23) is the costume competition and week five (Saturday, July 30) the winners will be presented with awards followed by an all-Bahamian concert.

Twelve groups from the “A” and “B” categories of Junkanoo will compete for top prizes in music, costumes, choreography and overall best performance at the event designed to celebrate Bahamian heritage, culture and its people.

There will also be individual competitions in best beller, drummer, and king and queen of Junkanoo.

Not to be forgotten will be the mouthwatering dishes offered from over 30 Bahamian vendors. Additionally, authentic Bahamian souvenirs will be available for purchase — from straw bags and jewelry to Bahamian artwork.

A kiddie corner will feature a number of Bahamian games including sack races, pony and horse rides, and egg and spoon races as well as story time.

Not to be outdone, there will be fun games for the adults who are young at heart. They will be able to partake in fun events such as corn, watermelon and pineapple eating; conch cracking and Andros crab catching competitions.

The crowd will also be wowed by performances from the military marching bands from the Royal Bahamas Police Force, Royal Bahamas Defence Force.

This year’s Junkanoo festival will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the slogan “It’s Better in The Bahamas”. Each group’s costume, dance and music will reflect the theme.

Ministry of Tourism Director of Events Charity Armbrister said they are excited about this year’s festival.

“The opening will be extremely special. We are having some extremely special attractions and entertainment. We will have on the water entertainment by Powerfly, the décor is going to be in tune with our theme, and we are really excited,” she said.

Recently, the Junkanoo groups held a number picking exercise that established the line-up for the competition.

In the A Group categories, the line up will be Valley Boys, One Family, Saxons Superstars, Roots, Genesis and Music Makers.

In the B category, the line up will be Conquerors for Christ, Colours Entertainment, Original Congos, Fancy Dancers, Redland Soldiers and Body of Christ.

Chris Justilien, leader of Colours Junkanoo Group said they are ready for battle.

“Colours, from our inception has always done Bahamian themes. The costumes are ready, the group is ready and we are excited. We are always competing with ourselves. Once we go out there and do a wonderful job at what we do we are quite pleased,” said Justilien.

Dencil Rolle, executive member of the Body of Christ, said his aim is to ensure that the community is involved.

“What we try to do during the summer is bring younger children to give them that Junkanoo experience and so that group that we had last year for the first time was very excited and challenging because dealing with children is not easy but they really enjoyed the festival,” he said.

Genesis chairman Sean Adderley is excited because this will be the first time his group will perform in the “A” category.

Even though they will be the new kid on the block, Adderley said Genesis is ready.

“We bring new energy back into Junkanoo. We look at Junkanoo as a platform for us. We do a number of outreach programs and Junkanoo is just a part of it. Anytime the Junkanoo horn blows we are ready to rush. You will see lots of love from Genesis.”

Junkanoo Summer Festival is also being held on a number of Family Islands.

The Goombay experience

The summer fun does not end when July comes to an end, as the Goombay Summer Festival returns every Friday in August.

Goombay, a signature event of the Ministry of Tourism, will be held in celebration of the life of former Minister of Tourism the late Sir Clement Maynard.

The next family fun-filled event in the summer line-up will include rhythmic dancing, fun competitions, a kiddie corner and all-Bahamian concerts, also to be held at Arawak Cay.

As the Junkanoo Summer event, Goombay festivals will be held nationally.

Both festivals are being held nationally.

Junkanoo Summer Festival lineup

Week one: Saturday, July 2

Music competition

Week two: Saturday, July 9

Time-off due to Independence celebrations

Week three: Saturday, July 16

Choreography/dance competition

Week four: Saturday, July 23

Costume/overall performance

Week five: Saturday, July 30

Junkanoo Summer Festival finale combo/award ceremony/all-Bahamian concert

Shavaughn Moss, Guardian Lifestyles Editor

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