PHILIPSBURG:--- The St. Maarten Carnival Development Foundation (SCDF) is past its registration period for most areas of Carnival and has reported a high amount of registrants for Carnival 2013. The registration period closed on December 1.
In particular, the SCDF was happy to note that Dutch St. Maarten's three biggest troupe leaders will be back for Carnival 2013. Jasmine Phillips, Gordon Yee and Brenda Wathey have all confirmed that they will be part of the festivities.
In Wathey's case, her Rio Productions troupe has not participated in the last two Carnivals, much to the chagrin of her revelers. Not only will Rio be back for the Grand Parades, but Wathey has confirmed that she will once again stage Rio's lighting parade which was a major hit in the lead up to last Carnival. "We're coming in the day and the night," she said.
The SCDF also expects to have guest troupes from abroad and from French St. Maarten. The registration of troupes for the Carnival parades is still open as the SCDF does not close-off the registration process for troupes until early April. The same goes for the Youth Extravaganza. The usual amount of approximately 20 calypsonians is expected to participate in the Calypso eliminations.
As for the Carnival queen pageants, the SCDF reported that 32 girls and women have registered for its four Carnival queen pageant. Twelve contestants are registered for the Miss Mature Pageant, 11 for the Senior Carnival Queen Pageant, 4 for the Teen Carnival Queen Pageant and 5 for the Junior Carnival Queen Pageant. The SCDF will introduce all contestants for the pageants the first week of January with official pageant pictures.
"We are extremely happy with the amount of registrants so far for Carnival 2013," President of the SCDF Michael Granger said. "The registration period is still open for Junior and Senior parade troupes as well as Junior Calypso and the Youth Extravaganza. But all indications are that these too will be impressive. We would like to thank all Carnival lovers who registered. Our festival cannot be successful without the participation of everyone," he added.
The foundation also announced that all booths in Carnival Village have been allotted to returning booth holders and a few new persons. People who had booths last Carnival was given first option on their booths.