St. Kitts & Nevis Friends Association was announced as the overall winner of the Luton International Carnival parade 2012 at a special presentation evening hosted by Luton Culture at UK Centre for Carnival Arts (UKCCA) last Saturday.
Each year, parade participants are judged on the quality of their costumes and performances. Judges award each entry a mark out of 25 based on three criteria; effort, artistic impression and representing the spirit of carnival.
The judging panel selecting the best carnival groups was made up of Morcea Walker from Northampton Carnival; Kamini Chauhan, UKCCA board member; and Jinette James, former leader of Dragons Carnival Band London (also a judge at Nottinghill Carnival).
The parade winners were:
Overall
1. St. Kitts & Nevis Friends Association Second - Bushmead Primary School
Float
1. Keech Hospice Care
2. Vauxhall Motors
3. Luton Irish Forum
Schools Cup
1. Bushmead Primary
2. Foxdell Infant and Junior Schools Third – Beech Hill Primary
Youth
1. St. Kitts & Nevis Friends Association
2. Bushmead Primary
3. Ghana Society
Newcomer
Purbachal
Adult
1. St.Vincent & the Grenadines Association
2. OM Group
3. Make A Difference
Mas Camp Award
St. Kitts & Nevis Friends Association
Organiser’s Choice
Rampage Carnival Band
Visitors
Morenada Bloque Kantuta
Noel Nanton Award
Jadviga Tankun
Karolina Tankun
Cllr Syd Knight, Mayor of Luton presented the overall winner and runner-up trophies to St. Kitts & Nevis Friends Association and to Bushmead Primary School.
He said: “All of the parade groups dedicated many hours of their free time to create one of the best carnivals the town has ever seen.
“The costumes and floats were magnificent and were of an exceptionally high quality that the judges had an extremely hard task of selecting the best groups.
“Everyone who participated should be very proud of what they achieved; once again the carnival has helped bring many communities and visitors to the town together and created a fantastic day out for all the family.”
Luton International Carnival was held on Sunday July 8 as part of the Love Luton Festival and was organised on behalf of Luton Borough Council by Luton Culture’s ‘Watch This Space’ events team in association with the UK Centre for Carnival Arts.
