Valley Boys take New Year's Day Victory

Tue, Jan 3rd 2012, 08:34 AM

The Valley Boys was declared the unofficial winner of the 2012 New Year's Day Junkanoo Parade in the A category.  Colours Entertainment once again won the B category, defeating the One Love Soldiers, this time by 191 points.  Valley Boys won under the theme 'Wetlands of The Bahamas', claiming best banner, best costume and winning the Shirley Street Performance Prize with a total of 4,739 points.

One Family, which came second, lost by 144 points under the theme 'The Glitz and Glamour of Fashion', with 4,595 points.  One Family won best music.  The Shell Saxons Superstars came third with 4,463 points under the theme 'Forward, Upward, Onward, Together'.  Roots placed fourth under the theme 'Atlantis, Sunrise to Sunrise' with 4,454 points.  Placing fifth was Music Makers with 3,521 points under the theme 'Carnival World'.  Finally, Prodigal Sons placed sixth with 3,296 points with the theme 'Junkanoo, A Celebration of Life'.

Many members and fans alike of the Valley Boys deemed the evening a night of justice and redemption for the group, after it placed fourth in the Boxing Day Junkanoo Parade.  Andy Ford, a member of the Valley Boys Junkanoo Committee, said winning is a tradition for the Valley Boys.  "After coming off of a bad and disastrous Boxing Day [performance], I guess it was our pride.  You know Valley has pride and we were hurt Boxing Day... and we came and showed the world that the Valley Boys is the greatest Junkanoo group in the world," he told The Guardian yesterday.

Desiree Mason, a Valley Boys free dancer said, "[I feel] elated about the win.  We worked very hard for it and we just performed and that's what brought us over the top."  Earl McClean, a Valley Boys cow beller, could not hide his excitement as he spoke about the win.  "Saxons take it Boxing Day [and we took] it New Year's," he said.  Chris Justilien, leader of Colours Entertainment, also commented on the win for his group.

"We are very, very happy to have won the New Year's Day Parade," he said.  "We want to thank the fans [who] supported us and cheered for us.  It was a very exciting parade for us."  Colours Entertainment under the theme 'Choices', won best banner, best music, and best costume, scoring 2,335 points in the B category.

Justilien continued, "It was a long road to first place, we just completed putting up our own building, so we didn't have space to work in.  To be able to pull off this victory in about six to eight weeks is really a mammoth task and I'd like to thank The Bahamas for supporting Colours over the years."

He said the group just celebrated its 10th anniversary.  Overall in the B category, Colours won with 2,335 points; One Love Soliders placed second with 2,144 points; Fancy Dancers placed third with 2,050; Redland Soliders came fourth with 1,987 points; Fifth place was awarded to Conquerors for Christ with 1,611 points; Culture Junkanoo Group came sixth with 1,464 points; Body of Christ came seventh with 729 points; Original Congos got 169 points for eighth place; and Z Bandits came ninth with 118 points.

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian

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