Digicel reigns supreme in Mash Day float parade

Feb 26, 2014 News

– ‘Vanilla’ is Road March Queen

The large procession of revellers who stood out in their radiant neon pink and gold, Arabian and Egyptian-themed costumes, have ensured that Digicel copped first place in the ‘Full Costume’ category of this year’s Mashramani Costume and Float Parade Competition.

A section of Digicel’s winning float.

Of the seven years of participation in the annual parade, the regional telecommunications giant, known for excellence and innovation has dominated in various categories of the competition.
Bands competing in last Sunday’s parade were judged in accordance to the following categories; Full Costume (medium, small and large), Semi Costume, Regional Full Costume, Animal Drawn and Individual pieces, which correlated with the theme of this year’s Mashramani celebrations, ‘Cultural Folklore Celebrating 44.’
According to a release from the Mash Secretariat yesterday, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport copped the second spot in the full costume category.
In the medium band category, the Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Labour and Ministry of Amerindian Affairs were first, second and third respectively.
Small costume winners included the Ministry of Education with their creation the ‘Legend of the Dutchman’, which copped first prize, with second place going to G/T Recyclers, who were applauded for their illustration of the ‘Moon Gazer’ and third place to the Ministry of Local Government.
In the Semi-Costume category, the PPP’s Progressive Youth Organization band won first place while the second spot went to FITUG Guyana.

The Ministry of Education entry

The medium size band winners included costume bands from the Ministry of Health and Region Five as well as Digicel Guyana. The Ministry of Amerindian Affairs copped the individual ‘King and Queen’ titles of this segment, while a second individual male title went to Digicel and the individual female title was given to the Ministry of Tourism.
Soca Artiste, Melissa ‘Vanilla’ Roberts, earned the judge’s approval as this year’s ‘Road March Queen’ for her piece ‘Yadda Yadda,’ which was clearly one of the more popular tunes for the day.
Regional winners included costume bands from regions three, four, five and six. Individual king of the regional costume segment went to region three, while region four was crowned queen. ‘Slingshot’ Drepaul and his band were recorded as overall winners of the animal-drawn float competition.