Government has announced that the traditional Boxing Day and New Year’s Day Junkanoo parade will return under different names this year.
The Boxing Day Junkanoo parade this year will be called the Tyrone “Dr. Off” Fitzgerald Junkanoo Parade and the New Year’s Day parade will be the Paul Knowles Junkanoo Parade.
Also, the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture with the National Junkanoo Committee announced that there will be five Junkanoo parades this year in an effort to expand Junkanoo activities in New Providence during the Yuletide season.
This year’s theme will be “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”
The following parades will be held on the following dates:
December 12 – the Junior Junkanoo Parade will be held from 5pm to 9pm in the Cable Beach area on the strip between Goodmans Bay and the Radisson Cable Beach Resort. This will be the first time the event will be held at this venue.
This year, for the first time there will be pre-judging of the lead cotume pieces of all Junkanoo groups and individual category of costumes for the Boxing and New Year’s Day parades.
The pre-judging of costumes will take the form of two float parades and will be held as follows:
December 25 – between the hours of 4pm to 6pm there will be pre-judging of the Boxing day lead costumes of each Junkanoo group as well as the individual category of costumes.
December 31 – between 4pm to 6pm there will be pre-judging of the New Year’s Day lead costumes of each group and individual category.
According to the ministry, both of the pre-judged float parades will be held in the same Cable Beach strip area as the Junior Junkanoo parade. The bleacher seating in this area will accommodate 19,500 spectators.
As previously announced the Junkanoo float parade on December 25 will be Winston “Gus” Cooper Float Parade, while the float parade on December 31 will be named the Percy “Vola” Francis Float Parade.
December 26 – the annual Boxing day Parade will start at 1am in the usual downtown Bay Street venue.
January 1, 2003 – the annual parade will start at 2am also in the usual venue on Bay Street.
The route this year also has been extended. Bleacher seats will be increased to 6,000 seats on Bay and Shirley Streets and electronic tickets for all parades will be sold at several locations to be announced at a later date.
With the implementation of so many new features to the overall Junkanoo experience the government hopes to create a continuous festive atmosphere during the Junkanoo season.
