Carnival in Jamaica looks for red-hot summer - But Xaymaca opts out

The Carnival in Jamaica (CIJ) national stakeholders committee has announced summer as the official season for Carnival 2022.

It is set to begin on Friday, July 1 and will culminate with the grand road parade on Sunday, July 10.

According to Kamal Bankay, the committee's co-chair, several bands and fetes are starting to make their own special preparations for this season "to ensure that the first summer staging of carnival will be one of the best yet."

"Having the event sector closed was devastating to us all, but we believe there is no better way to officially start summer than with a carnival," he stated in a press release.

CIJ is one of the biggest entertainment and tourism earners for Jamaica, he said, noting its economic impact amounting to J$4 billion annually.

"We are beyond happy to be able to announce, plan and execute another amazing carnival season for all the CIJ revellers we have missed since 2019," Bankay said. But popular band Xaymaca International says it will not participate in CIJ 2022.

"We wish all the bands a successful road march in July but out of respect and prior commitments to our regional and international partners who will be having road marches during that period; we have decided that it is best if we organise our band for a subsequent staging in Jamaica," said band leader Andrew Bellamy, in a release yesterday.

USUAL CARNIVAL CYCLE

"Our research has shown that carnival chasers regionally and internationally have already made commitments to carnivals and bands that have announced their carnival dates which are within their usual carnival cycle. As such it is highly unlikely that they will be coming to Jamaica because July is not within our usual carnival cycle," Bellamy continued.

Meanwhile, the CIJ committee has promised that a calendar of events will be released soon. It also said that CIJ 2023 is slated to go back to its usual April time frame.

Speaking to The Gleaner, Bacchanal director Michael Ammar Jr was confident that his wish to roll out carnival this summer would have been granted.

Instead of a re-launch of the carnival season for 2022, he explained that there will be mini events in May to get 'bacchanalists' in the spirit of carnival and then organisers will kick-start the summer festivities with Rum for Breakfast on June 25 at Hope Zoo.

"A launch is usually staged to reveal the costumes and these would have been rolled out - our band was practically sold out - so we are focused on getting them assembled and hosting a series of lead-up events at this time," he said.

When asked if masks would be added to the costume designs, he further explained that he and his team were not opposed to the idea but had no immediate plans to do so.

"We're three months away and we have to stay flexible (so) we as a band, and as the [Carnival in Jamaica] committee, will do what is necessary to make the road march safe from a security and a health point of view, and that will be guided by science," Ammar Jr said.