2014 CARNIVAL PROGRAMME INTRODUCES SOME EXCITING CHANGES
(Posted 05th April 2014)
The Seychelles Tourism Board yesterday released the programme for this year’s Carnaval de Carnivals, the Carnival International de Victoria, which will take place in three weeks’ time.
The fourth edition of the festival, which has become a global hit among carnival aficionados from the moment it was launched in 2011, will this year open at the Stad Popiler, not as before the Clock Tower square in the heart of Victoria, and promises a spectacle of impressions from the participating carnival troupes, blending colours, dance and song into one mighty curtain raiser that night.
To reflect the multinational presence have the organizers this year ensured that all the three official languages ??of the country will be reflected in the official opening of the carnival with three MC’s making their announcements in Creole, English and French. South Africa, one of the official partner countries in the event, has chosen television presenter Angelique Gerber. Marie Payet from Ile de la Reunion, who was crowned Miss France in 2011, will be representing the French language and hugely popular home girl Michelle Marengo from Seychelles will this year engage the spectators in her native Creole language. After the opening ceremony in the main stadium will the participants showcase their musical repertoire when they will take to the stage. The official opening of the Carnaval International de Victoria promises to be an amazing and memorable cocktail of music and rhythms to enjoy!
Among them is Grammy Award winner Lisa Harley and the Zydekats, who will be on tour in the Seychelles as part of the Carnival festival, bringing the American version of Creole music from Louisiana to the tropics. Fellow American Michael Quinn and the Bourbon Kings will add the country music flavor as they return to the archipelago for a da capo performance following their hugely successful first appearance two years ago.
For the main parade on Saturday afternoon the more than 20 floats will follow by and large the proven route of past years, with the VIP dais outside the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, opposite the iconic Kenwyn House, before the juggernaut makes its way towards the Clock Tower and down Fifth Avenue, all no doubt lined by enthusiastic Seychellois and foreign tourists who, besides having a holiday of a lifetime can also enjoy the eye candy of costumes from Sao Paulo to Notting Hill and from Duesseldorf to Seoul.
New for this year is the children’s festival on Sunday at Freedom Square, where they can pose and parade themselves in costumes of their own making while in the evening a grand costume ball on Eden Island will conclude the 2014 version of the Carnival International de Victoria.
((Scenes from previous Carnival Festivals in Victoria)
Time to pack those bags and join the ‘Carnivalistas’ for the one Carnival Festival which brings the world of Carnivals together like no other. Seychelles, truly Another World.
