The curtains were drawn on Vincy Mas 2005 Sunday with a prize giving ceremony for winners at the various competitions.

Culture and Tourism Minister René Baptiste told the large gathering that she takes her duty to preserve the carnival culture seriously and praised the members of the CDC, whom she said went beyond the call of duty. {{more}}

“We would continue to work in this carnival culture and trample down the doubters and we would be victorious,” she said.

Reviewing the festival, Baptiste said that the pan festival should start earlier so more villages could also have the sound of pan emanating from their areas and asked the Youlou Pan Movement(YPM) to have more pan concerts throughout the year. The Minister praised the level of Soca music this year and expressed pleasure with the performance of Roses Crew.

She however expressed disappointment with the calypso tents.

Also addressing Sunday’s ceremony was an obviously upset CDC chairman Dennis Ambrose who chided critics of his organization’s staging of the festival. He took a swipe at the local media for not giving carnival the attention it merited while he noted that the international media was gravitating toward Vincy Mas. He emphazised that Vincy Mas was no “wet fete” and noted that many of his critics formerly served on the CDC with no real results.

The actual distribution of prizes was done interspersed with performances by several of the winners.

Digicel Nelson Bloc joined the annals of history this year when they copped the Junior Band of the Year, they earned the Sylvia Wilson trophy, given in honour of the dedicated mas woman. and with the Band of the Year award, they received the Winston ‘Samo’ Smauel trophy. This is in memory of the versatile artisan. Samo and Wilson had been pillars of the cultural arena during the 50’s and 60’s. They reside on the North American continent and have been sources of inspiration to present mas makers.

The CDC opted to recognise the duo by naming the competitions after them.

The 2006 Vincy Mas will be staged from June 30 to July 11.