Junkanoo Commandos to perform in Edinburgh Carnival Festival this weekend

Edinburgh Carnival Festival

By Bronwyn Torrie on Thursday 3 July 2014

They're big, they're loud and they're proud.

Hailing from the balmy Bahamas, the Junkanoo Commandos are about to descend on Edinburgh for a fortnight of crazy carnival times.

We caught up with the group's larger-than-life founder Angelique McKay before she left her home town to come and teach us a thing or two about shaking our tail feathers

Are you looking forward to coming to Edinburgh?

AM: "We are very, very excited to be coming to Edinburgh to be a part of your carnival and to conduct workshops in the weeks leading up to it and to actually be performing on your streets... did I mention that we are very excited to be coming?

"Even though the Junkaoo Commandos have been to England over the years we have never been to Scotland and we are looking forward to spending time up there."

What do you like about the city?

AM: "We like the fact that the city is very embracing of art and culture.

"That is a very big plus to us as artist from the Bahamas, any city that allows us to embrace and express our culture we love.

"We cannot wait to explore Edinburgh."

Tell us what you’ll be wearing to the carnival?

AM: "During the carnival we will be wearing Bahamian-style Junkanoo costumes, but we are not using all of the traditional materials that we use in the Bahamas because of the bleak weather in Scotland.

"Our main material is crepe paper and we made adjustments to go with fabric, we felt that fabric will give the same look and vibrant colouring, but will be a bit more resilient to your weather conditions.

"The theme of the costumes that we will be wearing this year depict various elements of the ocean."

Do people need big personalities to go with their big costumes?

AM: "I never thought about that until you asked, but the Junkanoos take on a new personality it would seem once they have their costumes on and instruments in hand.

"The excitement surrounding our performances is not unlike any stage performance or anxious energy when going on stage, so the short answer to that question is yes.

"Yes, their personalities are huge once they’re in their costumes."

What makes the perfect carnival costume?

AM: "I would say the emotional attachment that you have to your costumes makes it a perfect costume, or in our case a perfect Junkanoo costume.

"We bond with our costumes over a period of time and we each work on our own costume so the attachment that we develop transforms it into the perfect costume."

What everyday things can people use at home to make an outfit?

AM: "In our costumes, the main material is cardboard, white water paint, craft glue, wire - coat hangers can also be used to keep the cost down if that is an issue - and regular crepe paper in a variety of bright colours to bring the designs to life."

Describe what it’s like to be a part of a carnival parade?

AM: "Imagine the anxiety in the pit of your stomach just before you drop from the top of a twenty-story rollercoaster ride, mixed with the joy of winning a million pounds cash from the lottery along with being featured on the front page of the hottest magazine in England.

"Mix them all together and that is the feeling we get when we participate in a parade, it is just an overall feeling of euphoria."

How many people are in the Junkanoo Commandos?

AM: "There are forty members. Our membership is made up from the top four major Junkanoo groups in the Bahamas - the Valley Boys, the Saxon Superstars, Roots and One Family."

Are you planning anything different or exiting for the Edinburgh parade?

AM: "One of the things that will be different is that participants of the workshops that the Junkanoo Commandos will be conducting will parade along with us.

"Their costumes will take on the same pattern and style as those of the Junkanoo Commandos ... anything else you will just have to come to the carnival and see for yourself.

Make your own costumes with the Junkanoo Commandos at Summerhall this weekend and practise your moves at a carnival party on Saturday night.

via FACEBOOK

Save you costumes for the main event on July 20 when the Edinburgh Festival Carnival will bring the city centre to life as a parade of 700 carnival performers make their way from the top of the Mound to the west end of Princes Street.

Free costume and community workshops with the Junkanoo Commandos

July 7, 8, 14, 15: Out of the Blue Drill Hall from 6pm to 8pm. Email anna@adjazz.co.uk to sign up.

July 7 and 8: Wester Hailes WHALE Arts Agency. Contact 0131 458 3267.

July 15 and 16: Goodtrees Neighbourhood Centre. Contact 0131 672 2629.

July 17: West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre. Contact 0131 551 3194.

via Twitter

Creative Nassau Members, Pam Burnside and 'Barabbas' Woodside discuss the organization on 'Inside the Inner City' Radio Show

On Tuesday, May 20, Pam Burnside and 'Barabbas' Woodside were guests on the Nassau Guardian's "Inside the Inner City" radio show 96.9, hosted by Valentino 'Scrooge' Brown, the leader of the  "Movement for Change' Community Group in Grants and Bain Town, Nassau which is assisted by Ulrich Voges who recently held the first TEDx Talks in Nassau. CN has partnered with this group to assist in community development 'from the inside out'.

Barabbas, Pam and Scrooge after the recent radio show

CN makes presentation to UNESCO representative, Dr Leon Higgs

Dr Leon Higgs was the proud recipient of an official Creative Nassau logo shirt from CN Co-Founder Pam Burnside, as thanks for his assistance in endorsing Creative Nassau's application to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network earlier this year.  Dr Higgs is the Secretary General for the Bahamas National Commission for UNESCO.  He stated that he will be wearing his shirt at CN's Official Launch later this evening! 

Creative Nassau's story travels to the world from Santa Fe

Luke Fannin, Editor of the Santa Fe Creative Tourism blog has just posted Part 1 of this story about Creative Nassau after an interview with Co-Founder, Pam Burnside. Watch this space for Part 2 as Creative Nassau's story travels to the world!

To Catch a Stick of Fire: Creative Tourism Journeys to the Bahamas
by Luke Fannin
For more than half a century, nations like the Bahamas have been synonymous with the idea
of the tropical island paradise: white sand beaches, relaxing seaside vacations, palm trees,
cocktails with paper umbrellas... at least in the minds of many Americans and other citizens
of the First World, that is. It’s an image commercial marketers and tourism officials in
Nassau, the Bahamas’ capital city, have heavily promoted since the colonial era, and they
have done so quite successfully--the Bahamas is easily the most prosperous Caribbean nation
thanks in large part to its tourism industry.
But that success has come at great cost, with commercial cruise lines taking over the tourism
market, taking money out of the local economies--as much as 60 cents on the dollar--and
rubbing out the unique cultural elements of popular tourist destinations. “We recently had a
conference in Nassau with six small developing Caribbean island nations,” says Pam
Burnside, owner of Doongalik Studios Art Gallery in Nassau and one of the founders of
Creative Nassau, a flagship creative tourism program in the Caribbean region. “Someone
showed a promotional poster of a palm tree on a sandy beach and asked, ‘Which Caribbean
island do you think this comes from?’ It was actually from somewhere in East Asia. So there’s
this generic mass marketing throughout the region and around the world, not just in the
Bahamas, that has nothing to do with the unique individual islands and nations that comprise
it.”
When Ms. Burnside and her late husband, Jackson Burnside III, founded Doongalik Studios
more than 40 years ago, they did so with a vision of counteracting these external,
homogenizing forces by bringing the dynamic artistic talent of the Bahamian people to the
forefront of their national identity. Their original vision statement is as follows: “By the year
2020, the majority of visitors to The Bahamas will come to experience its Art, Culture and
Heritage rather than its Sun, Sand and Sea.”
For years, the Burnsides worked to affect what change they could, promoting the work of
local artists and artisans with steadfast belief that the overwhelming artistic talent of their
countrymen and women could help to make the Bahamas into an internationally recognized
creative center. Then, in 2008, they attended the UNESCO Creative Cities Network
International Conference on Creative Tourism held in Santa Fe, where they heard the same
message they’d been trying to spread for some four decades. “The message we heard at the
conference resonated so strongly with our Doongalik vision,” Ms. Burnside says. “We realized
how art could help to move tourism forward... so we began meeting with about 20
like-minded people, artists and business owners, and we started talking about how to go about
getting Nassau in the Creative Cities Network.”
The arts heritage in the Bahamas is strong, but commercial tourism marketing has made that
truth seem a well-kept secret. “Being a part of both the business and art communities, I know
that a lot of visitors just don’t have a clue about the level of arts and culture available here,”
says Burnside. “It’s because we’ve never marketed ourselves in that way. So as an artists’
community, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to market ourselves for our art, and the Ministry of
Tourism is finally beginning to understand that this could be another tool for bringing people
into the country.”
Burnside and the Creative Nassau movement believe that two local art forms, straw art and a
unique festival known as junkanoo, are the key elements of their arts culture which will help
to draw the focal point of tourism away from commercial resorts and cruise lines, to the local
culture and people where it belongs. These art forms are the reason they have applied to the
Creative Cities Network as a City of Crafts and Folk Art. And while these arts traditions are
storied and proud, this movement is as much about saving them as it about sharing them
with the world.
........to be continued

CN Members continue to garner awards

Three CN Members have recently been selected for various awards for their accomplishments in the Bahamian community.

Patricia Glinton Meicholas receiving her award from the Governor General His Excellency, Sir Arthur Foulkes

PATRICIA GLINTON MEICHOLAS was presented with the Colour of Harmony Lifetime Achievement Award at the College of The Bahamas for her contributions to Bahamian Literature (read more at www.guanimapress.com)
ROSEMARY HANNA has been selected as a nominee for the Bahamian Icon Awards in the field of Education for her publication "Pictorial History and Memories of Nassau’s Over-The-Hill”. Winners will be announced at the 2014 Bahamian Icon Awards Ceremony on July 12, 2014;

VAUGHN ROBERTS has been selected as one of the 40 Most Outstanding Alumni of the College of The Bahamas in the field of Business and will be honoured at the College of The Bahamas' inaugural Flamingo Ball on June 14.

Creative Nassau sends sincere congratulations to them all!

Creative Nassau at the first ever TEDx Nassau

CN Co-Founder attended TEDx Nassau on May 3, 2014 - the first ever TEDx event held in the country.

Pam Burnside with CN partners, TEDx organizer, Uli Voges (left) and Shelagh Pritchard (right) of the Lignum Vitae Centre

Creative Nassau donates to Barabbas' Junkanoo group for their 2014 trip to Georgia

The Creative Nassau Team assisted their member, Quentin 'Barabbas' Woodside to take his junkanoo group to perform in their annual trip to Georgia for the St Patrick's Parade. This event has earmarked the Junkanoo festival abroad as the premier street parade for residents of the area and is a striking example of how Creative Tourism can change the face of visitor experiences!

Creative Nassau Members attend SIDS-Tourism Conference February 2014

CN Members Dr Davidson Hepburn and Pam Burnside attended the SIDS-Tourism Conference under the theme "Tourism as a key sector for development in Island States" at the Melia Resort in Nassau and promoted their Creative Nassau message during the Q&A Session. Presenters and attendees included persons from throughout the Caribbean, Belize, USA, UK, Greece, Seychelles, and the UAE.